Light Summons
by Umbrae Calamitas
Summary: *Sequel to Dark Summons* Joey has been turned into a dog, and soon the others are being trapped in animal forms, as well. An ancient promise of revenge whispers on the air, and their respective pasts come back to haunt them. R/B Y/Y S/J T/S
1. Chapter 1

**Umbrae: **IT'S ALIVE!!! [insert random mad-scientist laughter here] ^^ I'm so happy to have started working on the sequel! I was working on the outline last night, and ended up falling asleep on the couch, warmed by hot cocoa and a roaring fireplace. I guess hiking across campus with winter winds rushing around you can really tire a person out, but I slept well last night, and so here I am! I have to go to school in a couple of hours, but I figured that I would take some time to work on the first chapter of the sequel!

**Bakura: **You talk too much.

**Umbrae: **Oh, hush. I'm just happy – and awake. That, in itself, is something. Though my knee is killing me; I decided to step out onto the driveway yesterday and fall on my ass, much thanks to an inch of solid ice, so I hurt. I was not meant to bend that way – I am not a flexible person.

**Ryou: **Could you be flexible enough to start this fic?

**Umbrae: **My, you're impatient.

**Bakura: **I want out of the hospital!!

**Umbrae: **Haha! All right, then! But first, a few notes. First off is that this fic is mildly AU concerning Yami's past. This is probably a given, considering the prequel, and that I usually write things at least a tad AU, but I wanted to make a note of it. The second note is to assure people that I do not write Mary-Sue characters, so you need not fear my OC. She has a purpose, I promise, but I'm not much of a show character/OC shipper. I promise, you will like this fic.

**Bakura: **I wouldn't know – you won't start it.

**Umbrae: **Shut up and go kiss your boyfriend some more! I don't own YuGiOh! If I did, Yami would be with Yugi, Ryou would be with Bakura, the show never would have ended, and lots of other fun stuff would have happened. Obviously, this is not the case, so welcome to the popular state of pining for what you can't have. However, I still have fanfiction, so all is not lost! And now, without further ado, I give you the first chapter of _Light Summons_. Enjoy, please review, and, as always…

_Live long. Live well. Write. _

**Light Summons**

**I**

It had been a week since Bakura had awoken in the hospital and Ryou had finally explained everything that had occurred in the Shadow Realm. A week since Joey had somehow been turned into a Golden Retriever and they had all been banned from visiting Bakura after the nurse caught them with a dog in the hospital (after all, even _with_ Joey hiding under Tea's coat, no one could shut him up). A week since they had realized that Joey was just a dog to everyone else; it seemed only they could hear what he was saying. They didn't quite know how that was possible, but then, things always were weird when concerning their lot.

_Well, Joey's still a dog, _Yugi contemplated, _Bakura's still in the hospital, and I still have to go to school. _

It was a sad truth. The summer vacation that they had all cherished (but for the life-threatening adventure in the Shadow Realm) had come to a close. Dutifully, but not without much complaining, Yugi had returned to the classroom for his senior year of High School.

The one thing that made it a tad more bearable was that Yami would be joining him this year (much to the pharaoh's dismay). Yami would have much preferred staying at home and far away from the homework his aibou frequently slaved over, but Solomon would have none of it. Now that Yami had his own body and was quite alive, he insisted that he return to life as though he had been a part of it all along.

Yugi smiled, resting his head on his crossed arms. After they had returned from the Shadow Realm, when Bakura was in the hospital and they were anxiously awaiting for him to awaken, they had finally taken conscious notice of the fact that Yami still retained his own body. After continuous tests and even a trip to the doctor's office, they had discovered that Yami was quite alive and well.

Yugi glanced over at the boy sitting to his right. He blushed when he realized that Yami was, in turn, watching him.

"_Aibou?" _Yami asked through the mind-link.

"_Yeah, Yami?" _Yugi asked, looking up when the teacher walked into the room, only to turn back to Yami when she set her things on the desk and left again.

"_The tomb robber is going to have to suffer through this as well, right?" _

Yugi giggled lightly. The animosity between Yami and Bakura had dimmed down to a mere glimmer. Now, it was more like a brotherly squabble, though neither of them intended to voice how they felt companionable toward the other. Ryou and Yugi thought that they could sense it, though, and it didn't really surprise them. They, after all, now referred to each other as brothers (Solomon seemed to have noticed and accepted Ryou as his second grandson), and enemies often made the greatest of friends. There was still the insurmountable competitive attitude between the two of them, though.

"_Yes, Yami," _Yugi assured him. _"Ryou said he's going to make Bakura come to school if he has to manipulate him everyday." _

Yugi didn't actually think that Ryou _could_ manipulate Bakura for a full day. Now that the two of them had leveled out to perfectly balance each other, they were probably evenly matched in power-levels, even if Bakura _wasn't_ a psychic like Ryou. Bakura had a really strong will, which would be difficult to control. Even though he had toned down considerably, he still had a rather sadistic mind, though he never acted on it. Rather, it just seemed to be his personality, and Yugi thought he probably voiced it just to scare people. Ryou didn't seem concerned, and Yugi trusted his "brother."

Yami seemed contented by such an admittance and went back to writing in Egyptian in his notebook. Yugi caught words through their link like "school sucks" and "this is really stupid" and he couldn't help but laugh. He and Yami seemed in similar opinion of their current position. Although Yugi loved to learn, they had more important things to worry about right now that homework.

Speaking of which… Yugi leaned forward and tapped the shoulder of the person in front of him.

The brunette turned around to regard Yugi with a curious glance. "Hey, Yugi," he greeted, "how's it going?"

"Good, Tristan," Yugi replied, offering a smile. "I was wondering – how's Joey doing?"

Tristan grinned at the question – a grin that Bakura might have been proud of. "Fine, fine," he assured Yugi. "He's… _adjusting_."

Since Joey was still stuck in the form of a dog, they couldn't let him go home. None of them really wanted him to go home to his drunkard father as a human, but he would be almost helpless as a dog. That being said, Tristan had opted to keep him at his house, seeing as he already had a dog and "knew how to take care of them." From what Yugi understood, Joey wasn't very happy about wearing a collar and being forced to sleep in a kennel.

Yugi might have seemed like a more appropriate choice, seeing as his grandfather had been privy to a number of the strange things they went through and would have easily accepted that Joey was stuck in the form of a dog. However, what with Joey's hotheaded attitude, they figured that Tristan was probably the only one who would be able to keep Joey from running off and killing Kaiba. He was still pretty set on his current position being the fault of the CEO.

Yugi rather doubted that, but it wasn't smart to fight with a hotheaded furball with teeth. Tristan had already been bitten by the blonde, and Joey still hadn't apologized.

Though, Yugi could somewhat understand. Joey was very defensive of his sister, and Tristan really shouldn't have been talking about her like that, even if it was as a complement.

They weren't sure how they were going to go about turning Joey back into a human. They were in a fairly crappy position. They didn't know how Joey had come to be stuck in the form of a dog, nor who had done it. Yugi figured that Kaiba would have probably turned Joey into a really hideous Duel Monster, rather than a dog. The CEO was all about the card game and illusions. He had never believed in any of the magic, even when it danced in front of his face. No, this was the work on someone else, and none of them had any idea of who it could be.

A sudden unfamiliar sensation washed over Yugi's senses, breaking him from his thoughts and causing him to look up and scan the room. He was still unsure about the powers he had gained from his brief connection with Mahaad, but he was learning that most of them were based on instinct. He had always been one to trust his instincts in a game, and to trust in the Heart of the Cards. This was really no different.

And his trust proved to be no disappointment. He hadn't been scanning the room's occupants long before he caught sight of someone he didn't recognize.

He took in her appearance quickly, noting every detail to try and keep a visual representation in the back of his mind. She had heavily-tan skin, a little darker than Yami and Bakura's. She didn't look as though she belonged in the High School uniform, and her face showed off a look of mild discomfort. Her hair reached down a little past her shoulders and seemed to be colored much like a raven's feathers – black as midnight, blue streaks appearing in it when the light struck it just so. It was straight, but for her bangs, which were thick and wild around her face. Her eyes were slanted and rather hard as she scanned the room, the irises the darkest blue that Yugi had ever seen.

She seemed to be looking around for something, the light reflecting off of the bracelets on her wrists as she turned; two thin silver bracelets on her right hand, one on her left, and a thick silver armband on the top of her left arm. Yugi thought he could see something black peering out from around the confines of the band, and he wondered if she wore it to hide a tattoo that normally would have been concealed by a longer sleeve.

She seemed to sense him watching her, because she turned and locked gazes with him. Yugi swallowed, unsure of this feeling coursing through him. It wasn't attraction – for starters, he was gay and didn't find women attractive to begin with. He was also with Yami, _finally_, and he wouldn't give that up for anything. There was something there, however. Almost like he… recognized her. But he didn't. He had never seen her before in his life.

But what if… what if _Mahaad_ knew who she was?

The teacher had walked back into the room and the other students had taken their seats. The girl, however, still stood in the center of the room, her gaze still locked with Yugi's.

"Miss Sagira?"

Two thing happened to call Yugi back to reality. The first was the girl breaking eye contact with him, freeing him from the drowning pool that was her shadow-blue gaze. The second was the sharp stab of shock that raced through his veins from Yami's side of the link.

"_Yami?" _he asked, _"what is it?"_

"_N-Nothing, Aibou," _Yami replied, though his voice sounded strange, and it worried Yugi. He let it go, however, figuring he'd ask after school. Maybe Yami would be ready to tell him, then.

The girl had taken her seat at the teacher's bidding, and class had begun, calling Yugi's attention. He took notes obediently, though he found that he couldn't concentrate fully. His mind seemed to be elsewhere, as though he was thinking heavily upon something. However, he couldn't recall what it was he had been thinking about when he came back to full consciousness.

At the end of the day, however, he discovered that he had been doodling in the margins of his notebook without thinking. The same word appeared throughout every drawing, sending tremors of uncertainty down Yugi's spine.

_Sagira._

_

* * *

_

**Umbrae: **Look at that! The first chapter is DONE! I finished it in just a couple of hours, and before school even began. And now, I am eating my lovely, lovely tuna melt. Mmm…

**Bakura: **Hey! Where the _hell_ am I?!

**Umbrae: **Still in the hospital. Didn't I make that clear? Anyway, don't worry, Bakura – you appear in the next chapter. And you'll be out of the hospital soon enough.

**Ryou: **And then we get to go to school!

**Umbrae: **_Weeeeellllllll…_

**Ryou: **What are you planning?

**Umbrae: **Heh heh… _sore wa himitsu desu!_

**Bakura: **Damn you, half-breed!

**Umbrae: **Thank you, everyone, for reading! Please review, let me know what you think, and, as always…

_Live long. Live well. Write. Read. Dream. _


	2. Chapter 2

**Umbrae: **((watches her inbox fill with reviews)) YAY! I'm so happy everyone seems to have discovered that the sequel has been posted. Though, perhaps I should be worried. Does this mean I'm being stalked?

**Bakura: **Erm… no? ((innocent look))

**Umbrae: **Hmmm… oh well. Bring on the paparazzi. I will dazzle them with the mace I got for Christmas! FEAR THE MACE!!

**Ryou: **You got _Mace_ for Christmas?

**Umbrae: **College campuses are dangerous for innocent little girls.

**Bakura: **You are hardly _innocent_.

**Ryou: **_BAKURA?!_

**Bakura: **She gets amusement from _killing_ people off! That's hardly a trait belonging to a childlike individual.

**Umbrae: **Be careful, Bakura. Normally, I'd tell you that I'll write you into a book and kill you off if you don't behave but, seeing as you're already in a book…

**Bakura: **Bite me, Wolfie.

**Umbrae: **Is that a retort, or a _request_?

**Ryou: **MINE!

**Umbrae: **Yeesh, Ryou. Don't suffocate him. Anyway, thank you all for the reviews for the last chapter – responses to them can be found after the chapter. Please enjoy and, as always…

_Live long. Live well. Write. _

**Light Summons**

**II**

It had been a few days since school had started, and Yami had grown very distant. Since they each had their own bodies, they could easily talk face-to-face, rather through the mind link or in their Soul Rooms, and although Yugi loved being around Yami physically, he missed the visits to each others Soul Rooms. He missed the way that they had been so close when they shared a body, and this sudden distancing was beginning to terrify the small boy.

So Yami being so close-mouthed around him was icing on a very bitter cake.

It had all started when Yugi had locked eyes with that strange girl in the classroom. Yugi hadn't met her eyes since that moment, but nor had she spoken to him or Yami in any manner. There was something that Yami wasn't saying, though, and it had Yugi worried. Something about that girl, and the name she went by.

They had both reacted to the name Sagira, but Yugi was certain that he had never heard it before in his life. Yami apparently had, however, and whatever meaning the name had to him, it had shocked him deeply.

Deeply enough that he had closed himself off almost entirely from Yugi.

That was why, instead of going home right after school with a rather anti-social Yami, Yugi had opted to take a walk to the hospital to visit Bakura and Ryou. He had their homework with him, to give him a reason to be let into the hospital by the nurses (who were still very unhappy about the incident with "the dog named Joey"), but he really wanted to talk to Bakura.

He hoped Bakura would be willing to talk to him. Although he was far nicer and easier to get along with than he had been previous to their adventure in the Shadow Realm, Bakura was still very much a loner. The only people who were able to get really close to him were Ryou, for obvious reasons, and, strangely enough, Tristan.

_Speak of the devil, _Yugi thought, as he spotted the spiky-haired brunette through the doorway. Tristan was sitting on a chair by the bed, strumming his guitar with a pensive look on his face. Ryou was sitting on the bed with Bakura and it looked as though the three had been in a conversation, but Tristan had just floated off at some point.

_Artists, _Yugi mused, shaking his head with a smile. His mother had been the same way.

"Good afternoon, Yugi," Ryou greeted, omniscient and polite as always.

Yugi smiled, stepping through the doorway and into view. "Hi, Ryou," he replied with a grin, "Bakura, Tristan."

Bakura grunted lightly in response and Tristan waved absentmindedly. Yugi mentally shrugged. He really hadn't expected anything different.

"How was school, Yugi?" Ryou asked, seemingly the only one up for a conversation.

"It was okay," Yugi admitted, "but I'm having some trouble with English this year. I wish Joey could come to class." Ryou tilted his head to the side, a curious expression on his face. Yugi had a feeling he already knew why Yugi wished this, but was humoring him. He mentally thanked the albino for not being an egotistical, narcissistic fruit loop, and added, "Our teacher has a really strange American accent, and it's hard to catch what he's saying."

Ryou laughed at this. "Yes, Joey _would_ be able to tell better than the rest of us. I sometimes wonder why he moved to Japan."

"Probably to get away from everyone who speaks in that horrible accent he still holds onto," Bakura mumbled darkly.

Yugi grinned, able to perfectly recall Joey's idiosyncratic Brooklyn flair. "I like Joey's accent," he admitted, "it's unique. Definitely a Joey-thing."

Tristan chuckled, strumming a couple strings. "Yes, definitely Joey," he added with a smirk, back from whatever musical land he had mentally floated off to. "I think he moved here with his parents after Serenity was born," he admitted. "His mom was born in America, but lived in Japan with her aunt and uncle, I think. She met Joey's dad when they were visiting some relatives in America, and I think she just liked it here better." He strummed a few more strings and came out with a rather catchy tune. Smiling, he removed the pencil from behind his ear and wrote a few notes down on the pad on his knee.

"That explains it, I guess," Bakura growled.

"Ignore him," Ryou suggested to Yugi. "He's just mad because they won't let him leave the hospital until tomorrow."

Yugi raised his handful of books. "Well, that'll give you time to do the homework, then." He smiled shyly at Bakura's less-than-potent glare. "Umm… Bakura," he said after a moment's hesitation, "I was hoping I could… ask you something."

Tristan paused his strumming, looking at Yugi curiously, and Ryou leaned back against the wall with a smile on his face. Bakura studied the boy before him thoughtfully. "What?" he asked, but it was less ferocious than it could have been.

"Well," Yugi began hesitantly, "do you know anything about a girl named… Sagira?"

Bakura twitched at the name, his eyes widening a minuscule amount. Yugi wouldn't have caught it if he hadn't been watching the tomb robber, but he had noticed the movement. His violet eyes locked with Bakura's grey orbs and he silently begged the tomb raider to tell him… tell him what he knew… what Yugi needed to know.

"Have you talked to the pharaoh about this?" he demanded, answering the desperate question with another, less-desirable one.

Yugi sighed, lowering his gaze to the floor. "He won't talk to me," he muttered. "He's so… distant. It… it scares me," he admitted, his shoulders slumping. "I feel like we're falling apart and I don't know what to do." His eyelids drooped half-closed, as Yugi fell back into an all-too-familiar stance; one that he had held back before he completed the Millennium Puzzle. Tristan, who had been sitting quietly in the chair, sat up straight at the movement. He recognized the position. It was one of submissiveness; the one that Yugi had held back before he and Joey stopped being such royal asses to the poor kid. He'd seen the stance a thousand times, recognize it anywhere, and hate himself every time he recalled seeing Yugi in that position, knowing he had gone for years only causing the boy more pain.

Right now, he was mentally kicking himself repeatedly in the head.

"I just… I miss the way things used to be," Yugi continued, his voice breaking. He silently cursed himself for being so weak. He had been trying to keep this from getting to him, but nearly a full week of Yami almost refusing to talk to him had just about shattered Yugi, and he couldn't contain it anymore. Things had never been this bad before. Yami had never willingly refused to speak to him. This was almost the equivalent of the ordeal with the Seal of Oricalchos, when Yugi's soul had been taken away and he was separated from Yami. There had been silence then, but it was worse now because, now, it was by Yami's choice.

Hot tears slipped down his cheeks, burning angrily as they traced his pale flesh. "Doesn't he want to be my yami anymore, now that he's… separate?" he pleaded brokenly.

"Oh, Yugi," Ryou whispered, coming over to Yugi's side and wrapping the small boy in a hug. Yugi buried his face in Ryou's shirt and sobbed. "Of course he still wants to be your yami. He'll never stop wanting that. Yami loves you very much. He's just… dealing with something at the moment."

Tristan frowned, barely restraining a growl. He couldn't hope to understand the connection that Yugi shared with Yami, but he knew they were close. Now that he had stopped being such a dickhead, he was also pleasantly aware of what true friendship was, and he wouldn't give that up for anything in the world. He couldn't understand how Yami could think to cast Yugi aside so easily. Didn't he see how much pain he was causing the poor kid?

"But _what_?" Yugi begged, giving a meager voice to Tristan's raging thoughts. "What could be bothering him so much that he won't even tell _me_? I love him so much, Ryou. I just want to help him, but he won't let me in. Why… why won't he let me in?"

Ryou still held Yugi close, as he looked over at Bakura sitting on the bed. The white-haired tomb robber had been watching the proceedings with eternally-calculative grey eyes, but he hadn't thought that he was the one meant to reveal the answers to Yugi's blazing questions. From the look on Ryou's face, the albino didn't feel the same way.

"_It's not my secret," _he muttered through the mind-link, continuing a previously-unspoken argument. _"This is the pharaoh's burden." _

"_You hold the secret as well as Yami, and right now, he can't bring himself to tell anyone. I think we're going to need to know, in order to help him," _Ryou replied calmly, his soft crimson eyes locked with Bakura's.

"You_ already know," _the tomb robber retorted childishly, weakly demanding that someone else take the responsibility from him. It was a futile argument and he knew it, but it wasn't in his nature not to fight.

"_Bakura…" _Ryou reprimanded loosely. He didn't like acting like he knew everything, and truthfully, he didn't know a great deal, unless he looked. Of course, he _had_ looked in on this, the moment that he felt the tension between Yugi and Yami. Bakura had felt it first, actually, being more prone to hold the darkness of their balance. Still, he was merely a channel to these powers. Bakura knew because he had lived it. _"Tell him, Bakura," _he said, his voice sounding weary with the weight of the knowledge that he held, _"he needs to know." _

Bakura sighed softly, his eyes closing as he surrendered to Ryou's wishes. He drew a breath, seeming to think on the precise way to answer. "Sagira is… was… Yami's sister," he admitted with a soft growl, clearly not pleased by the memory that came to mind, or his duty to relive and reveal it. "She is the cause of one of the bloodiest massacres in Egypt."

* * *

**Umbrae: **Well, that sounds decidedly unpleasant.

**Bakura: **So there's a psychopathic three thousand year old Egyptian princess going to Domino High School?

**Umbrae: **Maybe.

**Bakura: **Hell. I refuse to attend.

**Umbrae: **Don't worry, Bakura. You won't have to.

**Bakura: **Thank Ra. Wait a second – why?!

**Umbrae: **Review responses!!

_**Jisa: **_Thanks! I'm glad you like it and I hope you enjoyed this chapter, as well!

_**YugiYamiFanGirl: **_Some answers lead to yet more questions… lol. I'm glad you like it so far and I hope this chapter was just as enjoyable.

_**SilverDragon-Purity: **_^^ I already sent you the answer to your question, but in reiteration, a Mary-Sue (or the male equivalent, Gary-Stu) is your stereotypical pretty-perfect OC who almost always gets into trouble, needs to be rescued, and ends up marrying the main character. A "author puts herself into fic" gone wrong. Anyways, I updated and I hope you enjoyed it! ^^

_**Happinessxandxrainbows: **_Female villains _are_ rare, though I tend to have a number of them in my novels. Don't worry, I'm sure you'll be pleased with what I have in store for everyone (to a point, at least – it _is_ drama). Oh, and Rebecca is still evil, and so is her possessed teddy bear of doom (YuGiOh! Abridged – my no own nor create. Sob with me children; sob with me).

_**Gothabie283: **_I'm glad you're excited and I hope you liked the chapter!

**Umbrae: **Thank you everyone for your lovely reviews! They make me so happy and I feel so loved. ^^ I hope you enjoyed the chapter and will grace me again with your cherished opinions. I'll have the next chapter up soon enough. I just have to type it up and send it out to my lovely, lovely, super-amazing beta, Wolf Flash, whose stuff you should go read. Now. _Greater Than a Pharaoh, Lesser Than a Slave_ is brilliant, I tell you! A work of art! I am blinded by its utter beauty and it causes me to _weep_.

Anyways, I'll see you again next chapter and, as always…

_Live long. Live well. Write. Read. Dream. _


	3. Chapter 3

**Umbrae: **I have discovered a new passion.

**Bakura: **Here we go.

**Umbrae: **Wordsworth is brilliant. He is an utterly fantastic poet and I am completely in love with his style. Granted, Shakespeare is good, but he's a better playwright than a poet, in my opinion.

**Ryou: **His plays _are_ poems.

**Umbrae: **Yes, they're written in iambic pentameter, but his plays are separate forms of writing from his sonnets, and he's far better at writing plays than sonnets, in my opinion.

**Ryou: **That's only because you love drama.

**Umbrae: **True. _Romeo and Juliet_ is one of the best pieces of work in the world, and _Hamlet_ was _divine. _I went to see it when the American Shakespeare Centre's traveling troupe came to my area, and I very nearly cried when it was over. It was just so _good_.

**Bakura: **And the whole point of this is…?

**Umbrae: **Just to remark that Shakespeare is an amazing playwright and the best in that field, but Wordsworth is the master poet outside of plays, and I love "We Are Seven" – it's such a wonderful poem, and anyone who hasn't read it yet should go and do so. Now.

**Bakura: **Good. Great. Now that that's settled, can we please get on with the fic? I want out of the hospital, damnit!

**Umbrae: **((sigh)) Fine. Thank you all for joining us again and I hope you'll enjoy the chapter! Please remember to review to let me know what you think and, as always…

_Live long. Live well. Write. _

**Light Summons**

**III**

"_Come _on_, Atemu!" she demanded impatiently. _

"_Don't be so prissy, Sagira," Atemu told his little sister, "or else someone might mistake you for the Emperor's daughter." (1)_

_Her nose crinkled cutely in disgust. "I'm not prissy, Atemu, you're just _slow_." _

"_Of course, Princess," he lamented sarcastically, causing her to roll her eyes. _

"_You take _forever_, Atemu," she moaned. "How are you ever going to be Pharaoh? You'll never be anywhere on time…"_

Yami opened his eyes slowly to be greeted by the burning rays of Ra's brilliance. The sun was streaming in through the window, he never having pulled the curtains over it. Sighing wearily, Yami pushed himself into a sitting position, legs hanging over the side of the bed, as he thought about the dream.

He remembered that day. Granted, he tried not to. He tried very hard to forget _everything_ about Sagira, but he never seemed capable. She was his sister, after all. He couldn't simply erase her from his life, however long ago said life had occurred.

He hadn't consciously recalled that particular conversation until now, but it brought back painful memories. Sagira had been right. He had been slow; too slow to save her the day that she was kidnapped, too slow to catch her suspected kidnapper, too slow to save their father from being murdered. Too slow… too slow… too slow…

"Oh, Sagira," he whispered softly into the desperate silence of the room. "I miss you."

* * *

Yugi was called back into consciousness by the sound of a door opening. He opened his eyes slowly, blinking back sleep's possessive embrace. For a moment, he glanced warily around the room, trying to remember where he was. The walls were a gentle pale blue and there were very few decorations anywhere in the room. Only a small desk in a corner, a bureau, and the bed on which he lay dwelled with him in the small space.

He turned his head a little, his gaze focusing on the desk on which a number of books were stacked neatly. He caught sight of a few familiar titles: _Oliver, _by Charles Dickens; _Little Women, _by Louisa May Alcott; _Lyrical Ballads, _by William Wordsworth.

_Right, _he mused sleepily, _I'm at Ryou's. _The albino had been talking to him about Wordsworth's poetry only a few days ago. After he had let Yugi read a few of the poems, they had fallen into a rather philosophical discussion on _We Are Seven_, which caused Bakura to complain loudly and leave the room. Yugi had actually related the poem briefly back to the Millennium Items, which Ryou had found particularly interesting, before they returned to discussing the differing views on death between times and culture.

But that had been near the beginning of the week and things had slipped away from pleasant discussions about poetry. Yugi felt an embarrassed blush rise in his cheeks at the memory of how he had broken down at the hospital. He hadn't intended to do that. In fact, he had been trying very hard to keep his emotions hidden.

Oh, but it was so hard. Whenever anything bad had happened, Yugi could always talk to Yami about it. The spirit and he were linked by the mind and they always knew when something was bothering the other.

But what could he do when he couldn't turn to Yami for help? The now-alive spirit of the Millennium Puzzle had always given him the strength he needed to go on and continue fighting, but when the spirit turned his back, did he take that strength with him?

_He hasn't turned his back on you, _Yugi reprimanded himself.

_Oh, yeah? _another part of his mind demanded. _Then where is he now, when you need him most?_

_He's just… he's… _Yugi sighed, his shoulders slumping heavily. _I don't know where he is._

Yami had blocked off his mind from Yugi. It was like there was a giant wall between them; one far too tall for Yugi to climb, and none of his words were able to pass through the thick barrier. That, or Yami was ignoring his calls. Whatever the reason, Yugi had tried a number of times to talk to Yami, but the pharaoh never answered and Yugi was left in a lonely silence.

He had gone to Bakura to get answers about the name Sagira, for he knew that was what was bothering Yami; he had been acting strange since he had heard the teacher say the name. To find out that she was not only Yami's little sister, but also the reason for a huge bloodbath was hardly what Yugi had anticipated learning. Though, he had to admit that part of him was relieved. He was slightly worried that Sagira would be the name of Yami's lover when he was still a pharaoh in Egypt, and he didn't know what he would have done if that had been the case.

Still, there really was no reason to assume that the girl in their class was Yami's sister. Yugi had been paying attention to the girl, though he managed to avoid eye contact with her and it seemed like he also managed to go relatively unnoticed in his glances. From what he had learned, Sagira was her surname, so it could just be a coincidence. Yugi hadn't been able to catch her entire given name, but he had heard a couple of people call her Ri. (2)

He sighed. When had they ever been lucky enough for things to be a coincidence? Fate seemed to make it a sport to torment them, and he really couldn't ignore the possibility that she was Yami's little sister.

Even if that would make her over three thousand years old.

Yugi was about to continue his contemplations about the strange new girl, when the sound of a door shutting interrupted his thoughts. When the door had opened, he had been too caught up in sleep to take notice, but now that he was awake, he was well aware of what was wrong with this scene.

After Yugi had calmed down at the hospital, though still held a vicious grip on his depressed thoughts, Ryou and he had taken a bus back to the albino's house. He had let Yugi in and helped him fix up something to eat, hanging around for a little over an hour.

He had wanted to return to the hospital, however, to be with Bakura so that the tomb robber wouldn't take his anger out on the poor nurses. Tristan, also, wouldn't be able to stay. How he managed to get into the hospital room after the incident with Joey, considering he was taking care of the errant, hospital-infiltrating "dog," Yugi didn't know. Ryou and Bakura, however, had disturbingly-similar looks, even moreso than Yugi and Yami, so the two could pass off as brothers. They hadn't admitted such a thing, but neither had they denied it to the nurses, and so Ryou was permitted to stay overnight.

That being said, however, Yugi shouldn't have been hearing the door opening and closing. Ryou had left the house to him alone and Yugi had locked the door before he crashed in Ryou's room. No one should be here but him.

Biting his lip worriedly, Yugi crawled out of the warm bed and padded quietly over to the bedroom door. Placing his palm flat against the surface of the door, he closed his eyes and stretched out his mind.

It was much the same way that he reached out his mind in order to speak to Yami (except that there was now a huge barrier in between their minds… _Don't think about it! You have more important things to worry about, like who's in Ryou's house._). Rather than seek out Yami's mind, however, Yugi sought out a separate entity. He wasn't sure that it could be called _alive_, but it definitely _existed_. He was beginning to understand the differences between those two states of being.

Where Yami's presence was generally an additional warmth to his own, this other presence was cool and silky, almost like water, but with less weight.

Yugi touched the presence gently with his mind and, in response, they reached out eagerly and wrapped around him in what one might consider to be a very excited hug.

He sighed in contentment as the shadows enveloped his mind. It was just how Mahaad's presence had felt, wrapping around him when he had been caught between life and death in the Shadow Realm. A comforting presence that he welcomed fully in lacking of Yami's cherished company, he took a moment to soak in the familiarity.

He had entered the shadows' presence for a reason, however, and he couldn't hesitate too long. Letting the shadows curl around him entirely, he stretched out his consciousness and allowed the shadows to mimic his actions, working like extensions of his own senses, seeking out the other presence in the house.

He found the trespasser quickly, located in the sitting room. He hadn't made it very far into the house, yet, and he didn't seem to be in any kind of hurry. Yugi wasn't sure how he could tell that the presence was male, but somehow he knew that, despite being unable to see the person's appearance. Rather than see them as he would have, had Yugi been in the room, the young boy was privy to the person's aura.

This particular man had a harsh aura of silver, the color of heavily-polished metal. The edges were sharp and biting, lashing out angrily – they easily belayed the irritation that this man was feeling at the moment, though Yugi had no idea what could be the cause of it.

Perhaps he had realized that there was little within the house to steal. Yugi had never known Ryou to be materialistic in any manner, and such a trait was easily revealed through his sparse décor. In fact, the only items Yugi had known the boy to covet were the many books he owned, and the Millennium Ring.

Other than that, Ryou seemed to cherish the things that many other people took for granted; friendship, acceptance, and family. Yugi was much like Ryou in that these ideas meant much more to them than they did to most other people.

Both Yugi and Ryou had gone through the majority of their life, up to the middle of High School, without friends for one reason or another, and they both craved the acceptance that most other people received without contest.

Unfortunately, Ryou was an albino and so was often viewed with a discriminatory eye. Yugi received a similar look due to his height, which caused him to appear many years younger than he was.

Ryou was also a psychic and, though this fact was known to only a select few, it caused him to view people and the world very differently from others. He was forced to wear a mask in order to appear _normal_, when he was very far from it.

Yugi had borne witness to horrors that few others his age were cursed with admitting. At one time, those around him had been aware of what he had seen. That had changed when he moved to Domino, but years of dealing with gazes of either pity or hatred had left their mark. None but his grandfather (and possibly Ryou) knew of his tragic past, but such horrid memories caused him, like Ryou, to view the world and the people in it differently.

For both their appearances and pasts, Ryou and Yugi was almost always deprived the acceptance that even Yami had received without concern on his first day of attending Domino High.

Due to their respective pasts and the horrors that they had unfortunately been privy to, both Ryou and Yugi cherished the idea of family above all others. Ryou's little sister had died, his mother had been destroyed by her own selfishness and his uncontrollable rage, and his father had distanced himself so greatly from the boy that they might not even be related.

Yugi had been born an only child and both of his parents had died in the same year. His grandfather was there for him no matter what came their way, but there was a large generation gap between the two that couldn't be breached, no matter how hard they tried to cross such an obstacle. Yugi was also no stranger to mortality; he knew life wasn't eternal and that Fate was exceedingly cruel. His grandfather wouldn't be with him forever and so he, like Ryou, cherished family highly.

There was a subconscious need within both of their hearts that was satiated mildly by their acceptance of each other. "Brother" had become more than a term of endearment between close friends, but a necessary understanding between two people who, under other circumstances and with the blessing of Mercy, might have been born from the same womb.

Knowing this, Yugi couldn't understand what this person hoped to find in Ryou's house. Surely if they knew of the Millennium Ring, then they knew that Ryou never took it off.

Yugi was about to move closer to see if he could define anything further about this trespasser, when he distantly heard the door open and a second presence stepped into the room.

This aura was white, as blindingly-bright as the sun, and burned into Yugi just as painfully. The shadows in which Yugi had immersed himself shirked back from the horrifying brilliance, betraying Yugi his dark shield. The light seemed to rush forward eagerly, striking like a vengeful serpent at his exposed soul.

Yugi let out a cry, pulling back in an attempt to escape the agony that tore into him. He forced himself away, back into the depths of the shadows, burying himself too deeply for the light to find him.

Distantly, he was aware of the auras shifting, their owners reacting to his involuntary cry. He couldn't find the strength to care that he heard his name being shouted, as he fell from the physical world and deep into the eternal embrace of uncorrupted shadows.

* * *

Yami was sitting in the shade of a tree in silence, the deserted park the only place he found that was able to grant him a semblance of peace in both body and mind. Still, however, his soul warred with itself, for more than one reason.

He was contemplating the course of action he should take, when his rare and meager sense of peace was destroyed by the arrival of a second presence, and an unfortunately recognizable one.

"What do you want, tomb robber?" he asked impatiently, annoyed at having been interrupted. He didn't bother to turn and face Bakura, knowing full-well that he would be standing with his arms crossed, his slate-grey eyes narrowed in the glare he reserved for Yami alone.

"You disgust me, Pharaoh," Bakura snarled, and all of the contempt that had escaped him since Ryou was rejoined with the other half of himself seemed to have returned. It swelled within his voice and Yami clenched his teeth in order to keep from replying. There was no one else who was able to get to him quite like Bakura. He wasn't certain what the connection was that offered the tomb robber this particular power, but he hated it without contest. "You claim to be this great ruler, protecting your people," Bakura mocked, "but you are, in fact, a selfish bastard."

Yami's eyes narrowed at the comment. He didn't boast of his past, of the fact that he was once a pharaoh – Bakura was the one that constantly brought it to light. He never claimed to be a great king, but he had done all he could to protect his people. There was nothing wrong with that, nothing wrong with trying to protect those who looked up to him. Why did Bakura continue to rant on him about it?

"And what is it about me, pray tell, that makes me so selfish, yet eludes you, Thief King?" Yami snapped, his temper finally convincing him to retort in kind, using the tomb robber's self-claimed title.

"I'm not out here moping when I am needed elsewhere," Bakura replied, but for some reason, his voice seemed to have lost the edge it'd had a moment ago. Yami spared himself a grin, wondering if his insult had, perhaps, dented the thief's ego a bit. He hoped so.

"Tell me, Pharaoh," Bakura continued, and his voice sounded almost… weary, "how long have you been holding up the walls to keep out your light?"

A sudden feeling of guilt welled up within Yami and couldn't help but flinch at the words. They were spoken in a tone that was almost concerned, and Yami couldn't ignore, however much he tried, the underlying emotion of regret that he was certain he sensed within Bakura's statement.

Yami forced back the guilt, however, burying all of his thoughts and Bakura's accusations under an emotionless mask. He squared his shoulders and sat up straighter, unwilling to let Bakura get to him. "And what concern is it of yours, tomb robber?" he asked, sounding bored.

He twitched in surprise when Bakura suddenly snapped at him angrily, "I'd say I have some part in this, as your hikari broke down in my hospital room yesterday, sobbing!" Yami was trying not to let Bakura's yelling get to him. He didn't want to turn around and face the tomb robber, because that would admit that the thief had gotten under his skin, but having someone who had once been your enemy (and who may, in fact, still be – Yami wasn't sure) standing behind you, screaming in rage, made him more than a little nervous. Although he tried to block out the screaming, however, he couldn't block out the words.

_Yugi was sobbing… why? _he wondered, but didn't dare ask. Bakura could easily be lying to him – that would be just like a thief.

"He seemed to think you wanted nothing more to do with him, now that you had your own body and didn't need to use his anymore. He's under the impression that you might even hate him."

Something within Yami curled up into a bawl and started to cry at those words. How could Yugi ever doubt that he cared? How could the boy ever think that Yami could hate him? They had been through so much! Yami had refused to move onto the Afterlife in order to remain with the boy that he had come to love. How could Yugi ever think anything less than-

"Tell me truly, Pharaoh," Bakura continued in a voice coated with bitterness, "was he really nothing more than a tool?"

"Of course not!" Yami declared loudly, leaping to his feet and turning to face the tomb robber, finally. His fists were clenched at his sides, as though he expected to have to fight to prove his honesty, and his eyes were set in a deadly glare just daring Bakura to accuse him of something so callous again. "You're the one who beat their hikari for the smallest little mistake!" he snarled, his rage calling the words to his lips before he dared to even consider what he was saying. "You're the sorry bastard who left their light to die after stabbing him repeatedly – left him to be found by his friends and went out drinking, while they waited in the hospital to see if he would survive the _night_!"

"Yugi is not Ryou," Bakura replied, using the hikaris' names for the first time since their conversation started. His arms were shaking in an attempt to hold his temper at Yami's words, but his eyes had lost some of their edge at the memories. Gods, how he _hated_ what he had done back then.

Only once he noticed the shaking of Bakura's limbs did he realize that the tomb robber had not appeared before him physically. Rather, he was a translucent image shimmering before Yami. He knew that it was still possible for them to use the Millennium Items to send their souls out of their bodies, but he hadn't done it since he had gained his own body, and he had never expected Bakura to do it. He wondered why the tomb robber had chosen not to come before him physically. It wouldn't have been to spare himself Yami's reaction if the pharaoh had decided to turn physical – Bakura would have jumped at a chance to clock him.

But… no, the _old_ Bakura would have done that. Things had changed; Bakura had changed.

Yami's furious accusations decided to meander through his brain at that moment and he mentally swore at himself. And he called the _tomb robber_ callous…

Before he was able to even think up a way to apologize to the white-haired thief, Bakura spoke again.

"It's not me you need to prove that to, Pharaoh," he said, still managing to keep the rage from his voice. "Regardless of your intentions or your stance, your light believes what he does, and no one but you will be able to convince him otherwise." He locked his eyes with Yami's, and it momentarily startled and perplexed the pharaoh that, though Bakura's spiritual form was translucent, his eyes were as solid as they had ever been. "And you may want to explain this to your light soon, Pharaoh, before he slips away any further."

_Slips… away? _"What are you talking about, tomb robber?" Yami asked, dread suddenly finding a startlingly-powerful hold on his heart.

"Your light is at Ryou's," Bakura explained, "or at least, his body is there." Yami went rigid. "His soul, however, has immersed itself deeply within the shadows, and we're trying our damnedest to keep him from slipping away any further." His eyes flickered with an emotion that looked frighteningly like concern. "I don't know how much longer we can keep his soul in this world, Pharaoh," Bakura admitted, "and you may want to be swift. You're not the only one, apparently, whose mind is a labyrinth, but you may be the only one who can navigate your light's." His form started to fade away as he summoned his spirit back to his body. "That is, of course," he finished, his voice an echo dancing forbiddingly on the wind, "if he's worth it…"

* * *

**Footnotes**

**1** - The palace frequently played host to other royals. Yami is simply referring to the rather high-and-mighty daughter of the Emperor of Rome, who was visiting that particular week.

**2** - Ri – pronounced Rye.

* * *

**Umbrae: **Why do I put Yugi through such horrors?

**Bakura: **Because you're an evil bitch?

**Ryou: **BAKURA?! … but, I kind of have to agree.

**Umbrae: **R-Ryou… you're abandoning me, too?? ((sniff)) But… you're my favorite character!! ((sniffs pathetically and opens up her deck of character cards)) I need a new friend. You guys suck.

**Bakura: **What the– WE DO NOT!

**Umbrae: **AHA! I call forth Joey, because I like his funky accent!

**Bakura: **_Great…_

**Joey: **Oooookay… dis is weird…

**Umbrae: **YAY! And now, onto the review responses!!

_**Gothabie283: **_Thank you! I love my Mace. Heh. I just makes me laugh. I cracked up when I opened the gift. Well, the revenge part is definitely right, but there's a few things that I've only insinuated, and everyone seems to have chosen just the one side. [insert rather evil grin here]

_**Yami no Serena: **_Thanks so much! I hope you liked this chapter, as well!

_**WhiteAsukalover: **_YES! I get to reply to you, too! ^^ The bloody massacre thing _should_ scare you – it holds a rather important role. I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

_**YugiYamiFangirl: **_^^ Every time I offer you an answer, yet more questions arise. We're all wondering what Yami's sister is doing there (well, except me, but I know everything). Hehe. I hope you liked the chapter!

_**HikariTenshiYamiTenshi: **_^^ Don't worry, Yami is specifically meant to be with Yugi. And thanks! I hope you liked the chapter.

_**Jisa: **_I know, and I never just stop putting him through so much crap. Oh well, he'll live… wow, actually, that might not be completely true. I did technically kill him in the prequel. Hmm… shutting up now.

_**Crimythest Love: **_Yep! Deeper into Yami's past, and soon deeper into Yugi's. I'm glad I'm pulling you in, and I certainly hope it holds up to the first one. It took me a while to find a name that I liked, and Sagira definitely stuck when I came across it. ^^ I'm glad you're liking the sequel so far! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, too, and will let me know what you think. I live for long reviews!

_**SilverDragon-Purity: **_We have all, at one point in our lives, written a Mary-Sue or Gary-Stu. And people are mean when they just insult you and don't give constructive criticism. I bite my thumb at them! Heh… sorry, too much Shakespeare. Lol, Azula 2 – ha! Sagira is Yami's younger sister, which was revealed in the dream-flashback at the beginning of the chapter. ^^ I agree… poor Yugi. But what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right? I guess the question with me is always if they're going to live or not… heh heh. Yugi's mom was a painter, which I will elaborate on later. ^^ I can't draw, either. That's why I have an artist. ^^ She's awesome, and Yugi's mom is kind of a shout-out to her, simply because she is the coolest person in the world. I hope you liked the chapter, and thanks for reading!!

_**Crystal Knight of Gemstone: **_Thanks so much! I'm glad you like it so far, but cliffhangers and suspense are like my lifelines. I must have them. ^^ You'll just have to deal. Haha! I hope you liked the chapter, and thanks for reading!

_**MysticalElfGirl: **_Wow, I'm definitely glad I posted that Author's Note, then. I was worried not everyone would realize that the sequel had been posted, but thanks for coming over and joining the Dark Side. [insert creepy Darth Vader breathing, because we _can_] Oh my goodness, you're making me blush! Thanks for the compliments, MEG (hey, cool!), and I'm glad you like the fic so far. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I can't wait to hear what you thought of it. ^^

**Umbrae: **I'm so excited! We have some new reviewers in the sequel, and everyone seems to be enjoying the fic so far. I'm really glad! I was worried about losing people because I dropped an OC into the mix – that seems to scare some people off. Anyways, I'm glad everyone has decided to stick around and join the fun! I'm having loads of fun writing this and I'm glad everyone likes reading it.

**Bakura: **Are we done yet?

**Joey: **Can it, Bakura!

**Umbrae: **I'm so happy! I have a puppy here to guard me against the evil, traitorous Ryou and his schizophrenic pet.

**Bakura: **I AM NOT A _PET_!

**Ryou: **Down, boy.

**Umbrae: **A few notes on things brought up in reviews:

- The name Sagira is an Egyptian girl's name, which means "little one." I got it out of my _Character Naming Sourcebook_, which is _awesome_. And hooray for _italics. _^^

- Yugi's mother was a painter. I know she appeared briefly in the manga and anime, but in my fic, she is dead, as well as Yugi's father. More will be divulged on that at a later date (maybe next chapter, or the following).

- I loved everyone's reactions to the last line of chapter two. _"She is the cause of one of the bloodiest massacres in Egypt."_ ^^ How does everyone assume she caused such a bloodbath? ^^ I love insinuating things. And I will leave you with just that and a hope that you enjoyed the chapter!

Please review and, as always-

**Joey: **Hey! What's dis button do? ((poke))

[screen goes blank]

_Live long. Live well. Write. Read. Dream. _


	4. Chapter 4

**Warning: This chapter contains some themes involving suicide attempts. Read are your own risk.**

**Umbrae: **Salut, mon amis! ^^ Je suis heureuse!

**Bakura: **_WHAT?!_

**Ryou: **She said "Hello, my friends. I am happy!" And now, I ask, _why_?

**Umbrae: **Because I can say all that in French. ^^

**Bakura: **((rolls eyes)) _Great…_

**Joey: **Bonjour!!

**Ryou: **Not you, too, Joey?!

**Joey: **Nah! Dat's da only word I know. ^__^

**Ryou: **Oh, thank Ra.

**Bakura: **Don't thank Ra. Thank Osiris for killing his brain cells.

**Ryou: **Ah, of course.

**Joey: **Jerks.

**Umbrae: **Suddenly, I feel very left out of the conversation. I really don't know how that happened, but… I think it's time to start the fic. I don't own YuGiOh! If I did, there would have been loads more drama and Yugi and Yami would have kissed multiple times. So, yeah… ((sniff)) Pity my fruitless endeavors to guilt the creator into letting me adopt Ryou-

**Joey: **Hey! What about me?!

**Umbrae: **And-

**Joey: **Seriously! What about me?! Don't you want to adopt me?

**Umbrae: **As always…

**Joey: **Dis sucks.

_Live long. Live well. Write. _

**Dark Summons**

**VI**

"_That is, of course, if he's worth it." _

_Of course he's worth it! _Yami was running down the sidewalk, ignoring the bewildered glances that followed him, their owners wondering what the emergency was and if it concerned them at all. If they'd known what had happened, Yami knew none of them would have come to his aid. People were self-centered like that.

He had proved that too himself just moments ago. Or rather, Bakura had proved that to him, by placing a metaphorical mirror in front of Yami and letting him have a good look at his own hideous self.

The tomb robber's words haunted him miserably. The only reason Yami wasn't crying in shame and horror is because he didn't think he deserved an outlet for his emotions at the moment. That, and he really didn't have the time. Yugi needed him.

Not that Yami deserved to be needed.

The route to Ryou's house had never seemed quite so long before. Not that Yami had been to Ryou's a great deal (he more remembered a few visits that Yugi had taken when they still shared a soul), but he was running as fast as he could down the sidewalk and he swore that time itself was against him. The Fates were surely laughing with cruel amusement. Not that Yami deserved anything less, but at Yugi's expense? No – no one should ever harm a hair on that innocent boy's head.

_Hypocrite, _his mind snarled, and Yami involuntarily winced.

When the semi-familiar white house finally came into view, Yami wasted no time with proper etiquette and burst unceremoniously and rather rudely through the front door. Frighteningly, he was unable to feel Yugi's presence and draw their position from that, but the Millennium Puzzle had an aura of its own that summoned Yami without delay, and he followed it like a loyal puppy that deserved a vicious, horrid beating.

Once again ignoring the manners drilled into him at a young age, Yami shoved open the white-painted door that housed the Millennium Puzzle. He caught sight of Ryou first and stopped, breathing heavily from having run so far nonstop, as his eyes surveyed the room.

Bakura was nowhere in sight, although Yami found, to his surprise, that he didn't know what to feel about that particular observation. Perhaps he was still in the hospital but, for some reason, Yami doubted it.

Ryou was sitting on the edge of the bed, one leg hanging over the side and the other curled under him. He hadn't looked up when Yami entered abruptly and he assumed that the albino had already been quite aware of his imminent arrival. Yami's attention was swiftly drawn away from Ryou, however, when he saw the other person in the room.

Yugi was lying on the bed, the blankets pulled up to his chin. His hair splayed out across the white pillow like a multi-colored crown. His eyes were closed in sleep and he was breathing deeply, but his face was paler than normal and even standing this close, Yami still couldn't sense him.

Ryou's hand was resting on Yugi's forehead, as though he had been feeling the boy's temperature but then forgot to remove his hand. His eyes were focused on Yugi's face, his shoulders slumped and body leaning forward as though weighed down by the force of the defeat he felt in his soul. Yami felt a shiver of fear ripple through him at what could cause the boy to feel so dejected. He was, after all, a powerful psychic who probably had very few limitations when it came down to it. If he couldn't do anything to help Yugi…

"It's strange," Ryou said, interrupting Yami's thoughts in a voice that would have too quiet to hear if not for the unnatural silence throughout the house, "how well you can think you know a person. I suppose… you never really see all sides of someone, do you?" He removed his hand, finally, using it to brush back the golden bangs that always fell over the small boy's eyes. "He's been here for me through everything," Ryou continued, his eyes still locked dutifully onto Yugi's pale, emotionless face. "I never even thought to look… to even think… he might need the favor returned."

"Ryou, what're you-"

"Did you ever wonder why he wears that collar around his neck?" Ryou continued, ignoring Yami's interrupted question. "Or why he wears long sleeves, even in the summer?" (1)

The question threw Yami off with its unexpectedness. He had never second-guessed Yugi's choice of attire. Some people didn't like their limbs to show, and Yami had always assumed that it was simply Yugi's preferred style.

Ryou let the silence linger for a while. Whether it was because he was trapped in his own thoughts or wanted to give Yami time to consider the reasons for the question, the pharaoh didn't know. After a long, painfully-worrying pause, however, the albino finally spoke again. He said only a single sentence, but one that caused Yami to pale out of fear of what it meant.

"I wish I'd questioned it."

He didn't want to ask. He didn't want to! But he had to, he knew. Of course he did. This was his aibou they were talking about. His _Aibou_!

"Why, Ryou?" he asked, though he couldn't get his voice above a whisper, and he knew his voice was both reluctant and filled with dread, like his heart.

For the first time since the pharaoh had arrived, Ryou finally met his gaze. The albino's soft crimson eyes were filled with mountains of emotional pain, their gargantuan, immobile forms slowly sinking into an ocean of regret. Without a word, he turned back to the small boy on the bed and drew the blankets down with only a small glimmer of regret.

Yami felt his insides freeze as effectively as if ice water had been pumped into his veins. Yugi had been stripped from the waist up and Yami was suddenly granted with the answer to Ryou's questions. Yugi didn't wear short sleeves or bear his torso in any manner, because his flesh was covered in a countless array of scars. There were three, however, that stood out more terrifyingly than all of the others.

The first was a small scar by appearances alone, but Yami had experience with weapons thanks to his memories of Ancient Egypt. The scar on his chest, no longer than his pinky finger and barely any wider than a quarter, looked small, but the wound would have been deep, for Yami knew only a knife could make such a precise cut. He wondered who would dare to do such a thing and how Yugi had been lucky enough for it to miss his heart, but that wasn't the worst of the scars.

The second was thin and smooth, pale against pale, and almost beautiful except for the fact that it was normally covered up by the buckle Yugi wore around his neck. From the left side of his neck to the front, something had stopped his attacker from finishing the cut that would surely have taken Yugi's life. Only a couple more centimeters and Yugi's jugular vein would have been shredded. How… Gods have mercy, who could have dared?

The third scar he could see… that was the worst.

The first scar was probably made by someone standing over the boy.

The second made, obviously, by someone behind him.

The third… the third was made by Yugi himself.

A thin white line across his left wrist. An undeniable attempt to end his own life, to cast his soul out of his body. To die. To die, without any possibility of him being saved.

An attempt, Gods… Yugi had tried to commit suicide?

Yami didn't realize that he had been crying until his weak legs finally gave out and he collapsed to the floor. Whatever walls he'd had up around his emotions finally broke from all the damage that had been done by this revelation and he sobbed brokenly into the carpet.

"H-How?" he managed.

"I don't know," Ryou admitted sorrowfully. "He has very strong mental shields, but they're subtle. I try to find my way through his subconscious, but the pathways always lead me back to my own mind. I cannot reach him, Yami, but perhaps you can."

"How could I get closer than you?" Yami whispered weakly. "I caused him so much pain…"

"He loves you, Yami, in a way that he loves no other. In a way, I think, that he has never _dared_ to love another. If anyone can find a way through his shields, it will be you." He closed his eyes. "But you must hurry, Pharaoh. I cannot hold the shadows back from consuming him for much longer. For whatever reason, he fears my light. You must bring him back, Yami – back to the light, before we lose him to the shadows like I lost Amane."

Amane.

That name brought back horrible memories of holding a lifeless Yugi in his arms. Memories of begging the pale, death-kissed child to wake up, but knowing in his heart that it was a futile plea for mercy.

He had forgotten that, hadn't he? How could he have forgotten?!

"I don't deserve to have him as my light," he whispered.

"Deserving or not," Ryou replied, "you _are_ his darkness. He needs you, Yami."

_Yes, but could he ever want me again? _

Reaching over hesitantly, Yami ran his fingertips gently down Yugi's pale, cold cheek. He gained no reaction from the small boy, and a shiver of fear raced up his spine. How could he have done this to his light? How could he have locked him out?

"Hurry," Ryou whispered.

Yami nodded softly, and then slipped through the magics of the Millennium Puzzle, into the corridor between their Soul Rooms, and into the mind of his aibou, his light, and his love, searching for his soul in the darkness of a shadowed heart.

* * *

**1 – **I know that Yugi has been seen in both manga and anime in short sleeves and bare-chested. Please respect my authoress powers of doom and consider this part distinctly AU. Yugi has never bared any of his body before the eyes of his friends. Thank you!

* * *

**Joey: **What did you do to my little buddy?!

**Umbrae: **I have partially revealed a part of his past. Sort of.

**Bakura: **I'm wondering… are those the scars from Shadow Ryou?

**Umbrae: **Nope. These scars were given to Yugi years ago. Yugi was completely healed from the effects of Shadow Ryou's physical torture and has no bodily scars marring his flesh from _that_ particular incident.

**Joey: **So who did dis?

**Umbrae: **_Sore was himitsu desu! _Review responses!!

_**Jisa: **_Yami doesn't think he can run fast enough, either. ^^

_**WhiteAsukalover: **_An in-depth explanation will be given eventually, fear not! ^^

_**YugiYamiFanGirl: **_Yep; sometimes it takes the person least expected. ^^ Go Bakura!

_**SilverDragon-Purity: **_Good to know people read the Author's Notes, and better to know that you enjoyed it! ^^ Have to fix a mild mistake with the Bakura beating Ryou bit – happened before Dark Summons, when they were still sharing a body, so he didn't go out to drink, but the rest is true. ^^ Other questions will arise, no doubt, but answers will be given soon enough. ^^

_**Crimythest Love: **_I've been in the mood for angst, too, oddly, so there will be a decent bit of it in the next few chapters. ^^ I'm glad you liked it and I hope I continue to please you!

_**Crystal Knight of Gemstone: **_Thankies!

_**Gothabie283: **_I do put him through so much, don't I? Poor kid. I'm glad it makes the stories enjoyable, and I hope you liked this chapter, too!

**Umbrae: **As always, your reviews bring me great amounts of comfort. I know this chapter was short, but I have a feeling that the next chapter might be rather long to make up for it. Thank you all for reviewing and I hope you will do so again. Enjoy the chapter and, as always…

_Live long. Live well. Write. Read. Dream. _


	5. Chapter 5

**Umbrae: **Heya, everyone!!

**Ryou: **((sigh)) This is going to be like last semester, isn't it, when you were writing _Dark Summons_?

**Umbrae: **((twitch)) Er… whatever do you mean, Ryou? ((innocent look))

**Ryou: **You have a test in French tomorrow.

**Umbrae: **Do I?

**Ryou: **You have a paper due in a week.

**Umbrae: **Eh… heh heh…

**Ryou: **You have chapters to read for your British Literature class.

**Umbrae: **((whines)) But I don't _wanna_! ((sniff)) Joey, make Ryou stop being so mean and bossy!!

**Joey: **Oi! She ain't gonna stop, no matter what ya tell her.

**Ryou: **((sigh)) I know… I'm just the part of her mind that knows she should get this stuff done early.

**Umbrae: **I'll study after I write this chapter, I promise!

**Ryou: **You're lying…

**Umbrae: **Well, _maybe_ I'll study. ^^ Onward!! I don't own YuGiOh! If I owned YuGiOh!, I would have bought a bookstore. Anyways, enjoy the chapter, please review, and, as always…

_Live long. Live well. Write. _

--

**Light Summons**

**V**

Yami had gone limp, his soul exiting his body to traverse the corridors of Yugi's mind. To prevent the pharaoh's body from falling over and becoming injured, Ryou had placed him next to Yugi on the bed. He had then made a few phone calls to the others, gathering everyone together for the upcoming revelations.

Things were about to take a turn for them. It was just one of those things that he _knew_.

Bakura appeared suddenly, wading through the closed door as only a manifested spirit could. The tomb robber had forsaken use of his body for the time being, finding it rather useless in its current state. The spirit didn't seem angry at this anymore, however, his mind focused elsewhere. There was a raging flame of memory in his slate grey eyes and he appeared to be haunted by something; perhaps himself.

_Bad pun, Ryou, _the albino admonished himself, _bad pun._ He watched his other half wander aimlessly about the room, his movements having no purpose. In fact, the only thing that he seemed to do with conscious effort was keep his gaze away from the three other persons within the room, and each for a different reason.

Ryou studied his other, noting with dismay the tenseness of his muscles, the weary gleam in his beautiful eyes, and the paleness of his skin that came with the memories as often as with the nightmares he had been having every night since their return from the Shadow Realm.

"Bakura," Ryou said softly, finally moving from the bed. He wandered over to Bakura, who flinched as Ryou neared. The albino, however, was not deterred, and placed a gentle hand on the tomb robber's back. The touch alone seemed to cause the thief pain, but he managed to retain some semblance of his dignity, until Ryou whispered, "Will you be all right?"

The concern and caring within those words were all that it took for the thief's walls to crumble, and he spun around and buried himself into the albino's awaiting arms. Ryou embraced him gently, holding him close as Bakura buried his face into his hikari's chest and sobbed brokenly. His shoulders shook heavily with each gut-wrenching cry, his swift-footed tears dutifully soaking the Ryou's shirt. Ryou simply held him, unwilling to let him face his demons alone, and determined to prove to Bakura that he would never have to face such horrors as his past alone again.

"_I… got rid of them," _Bakura whispered weakly through the mind link, when his sobs had quieted to a silent stream of tears and the occasional unmanly sniffle. He didn't remove his head from where it rested on Ryou's chest, and the albino began to gently run his fingers through the tomb robber's hair. The action, which had become familiar over the past few weeks, calmed Bakura like nothing else was able. It was an action that Ryou had taken to doing every time Bakura awoke from one of his nightmares, be they about his past and the death of his family, or watching Ryou "die" in the Shadow Realm.

It always took Ryou longer to calm him after the latter.

"It's okay," Ryou whispered soothingly, running slender fingers through thick white locks. He rested his cheek on the top of Bakura's head and simply stroked him, as one might stroke a long-furred cat. Ryou was very happy that their link permitted him to have physical contact with the tomb robber, even when he was merely manifesting his spirit. He didn't think he would have been able to calm the thief as effectively with his body in its current state.

"_H-how… how can it be okay? I… I…" _Instead of finishing his statement, Bakura merely shivered and tried to bury himself deeper into Ryou's arms. The albino got the impression that Bakura was trying to bury himself back into the depths of the Millennium Ring, where he would be able to hide his form from all dangers, or so he hoped.

The shadows weren't with him anymore, however, and Ryou knew it would take some getting used to. This pain… Bakura suffered from past acts that he had committed, and a few of the worst were brought back to the forefront of his thoughts when they had found Yugi. Or rather, when they had found his body littered with scars.

Ryou hadn't thought of the reaction that Yugi would have upon their returning to the house. Of course, he _had_ told Yugi that Bakura would be let out of the hospital that day, but the boy probably hadn't realized that he had slept through the night and half the day. It had been late in the afternoon when Bakura and Ryou had finally finished at the hospital and been permitted to return home.

Ryou had sensed that Yugi was still sleeping, so they had tried to be as quiet as possible when entering the house. Obviously, they had awoken him despite their attempts and concerned him enough that he had used his newly-acclimated powers to traverse the shadows in an attempt to discover their identities. Ryou supposed that, had they been burglars instead, this would have been the safer often. He wished he had thought of the possibility of Yugi using his dark powers; he would have hidden his aura. As it was, he never needed to around Bakura, and it had caused the shadows to retreat from Yugi, leaving him exposed to the powers of light, when his soul was merged with shadows.

Only once they'd heard Yugi scream did they realize that the strange feeling of being watched had not been coincidental paranoia. Ryou and Bakura had immediately rushed to the bedroom to find Yugi having some sort of seizure, his soul flaring desperately in an attempt to ward off danger. The threat, however, had been _light_, and Yugi's soul, being one of light, had been fighting itself.

It had nearly killed him, and Ryou was terrified when the boy stopped breathing. It was only with Bakura's quick thinking and use of his shadow magic that he had restarted Yugi's heart, plunging the boy's soul into the shadows that he had been so desperate to reach. His magic had still been active, so the shadows would accept and protect him, where he would only continue to fight the light.

Bakura wouldn't be able to bring Yugi's soul back from his hiding place, as Yugi didn't trust Bakura enough to let their souls touch – that was understandable. However, the tomb robber knew that he might be able to help heal some of the damage done to the boy's soul, and so they had removed Yugi's shirt in order to give Bakura better access to his form.

And then, of course, they had seen the scars.

Except for the few minutes that he had taken to confront Yami, Bakura had been silently brooding for the most part. He would occasionally glance at Ryou, but his eyes would fill with pain and regret and he would quickly look away.

Ryou admitted that he had been confused and afraid that he had somehow caused the tomb robber to regret his feelings, and his feelings only intensified when the tomb robber had left the room and returned to his own. It was after hearing a lot of thrashing and pounding that Ryou had gone to investigate and discovered what had been causing Bakura such distress.

The scars on Yugi's body had brought back thoughts of all the pain that Bakura had caused others in the past, but especially the pain that he had caused Ryou. He had traced his fingers with utter regret over the scar on Ryou's left arm, where he had stabbed him during the Battle City tournaments, with Marik. The wound had healed, but the scar would never leave. Ryou didn't mind it so much – it hadn't been Bakura's fault.

Bakura had taken the memories and Yugi's state harshly, though, and had spent the past hour digging out every blade that he had collected over the years and destroying them fervently with shadow magic. He had finally completed his self-acclaimed task, and Ryou was glad to have the tomb robber in his arms now. He knew that Bakura had needed comforting, but he wouldn't allow Ryou to give it to him until now. Bakura needed to be comforted, and Ryou needed to give him that comfort, in order to stave his own roiling emotions.

"It's not your fault, Bakura," he whispered softly into the tomb robber's ear, still trailing his fingers lovingly through those thick locks.

Bakura had tensed up at the words and Ryou felt a wall form between them – Bakura's instinctual attempt to defend himself. _Old habits die hard._

"How do you know that?" Bakura asked in a weak whisper, though his voice had calmed enough that he was able to speak verbally. "I could have fought them!"

"You did, Bakura," Ryou reminded him, his voice calm and patient. "You were fighting them all this time. You simply weren't able to break through until there was somewhere for the shadows to be cast."

"You can't take sole blame," Bakura muttered in argument against Ryou's chest.

"And I don't," Ryou replied. "Blame me enough for my selfishness. Blame the world for causing people to have to turn callous in order to survive. Blame the driver for being drunk in the first place, or blame Amane for allowing herself to be hit when she could have stopped it." He released a bitter laugh that didn't suit him. "Took me forever to realize I wasn't the only psychic in the family."

Bakura pulled back from the embrace to look into Ryou's light crimson eyes. "Your sister was psychic, too?" he asked, surprised.

Ryou nodded, brushing back Bakura's bangs as he stared into those steel-colored orbs. "Some of the things she said at the hospital… I didn't realize until recently that she couldn't have known all of that. I have a feeling I know what she told our mother, too, and I have to wonder if Mum didn't _want_ to die that day…"

A knock on the door interrupted their musings. Bakura desperately wanted Ryou to continue talking to him. It sounded like the boy needed someone to talk to – like he needed to confide in someone all that he had recently learned, and the horrors of his own past. He had been there for Bakura when the nightmares came, but when would Bakura be permitted to return the favor?

Rather than continue the conversation, however, Ryou simply kissed Bakura on the forehead and left to go answer the door, as though nothing was wrong with the world.

It disturbed Bakura that he was so used to having no one there for him.

Sighing, Bakura eyed his translucent skin, huffed, and let his soul fade back into his… _body_.

A moment later, Tristan stepped through the doorway with Ryou and a very unhappy Golden Retriever.

"Hey, Bakura," Tristan greeted with a casual wave. He had met up with Ryou and Bakura earlier, so he wasn't surprised by the change in the tomb robber's form, or that his only reply with an extremely unhappy grunt from the edge of the bed. Joey, however, had more words to say.

"What da hell happened ta ya, Bakura?!"

"Shut up, mutt," came the hissing reply from the mouth of… a ferret.

"Mutt? Ya ain't one ta talk. Ya a fuckin' rat. I could snack on ya ass."

"Stop it, you two," Ryou muttered, walking further into the room. "We have more important things to concern ourselves with."

For the first time, the newly arrived duo noticed the unconscious occupants of the bed.

"What happened ta Yug an' da Pharaoh?" Joey demanded, leaping onto the bed and sniffing the two worriedly. "Dey don' smell right."

"Their souls are not within the confines of their bodies," Bakura explained, edging away from the dog. He turned to find Tristan holding out a hand, and the tomb robber turned rodent happily climbed up his arm to sit on his shoulder. Normally, he wouldn't degrade himself so, but this was Tristan, and he didn't like the idea of being at a lower level than the blonde.

"The Pharaoh," he continued, "is attempting to retrieve his light's soul from the shadows of his mind, though it never should have gone this far."

"Damn," Joey snarled, sitting down in the center of the bed and looking between the two, "I feel useless."

"You _are_ useless," Bakura replied without pause, earning himself a potent puppy-glare. "I still retain use of my shadow magic, at least. You are a mere dog, though I have to say that it's an improvement."

"Get down 'ere an' say dat, rat-boy!" Joey snarled, leaping to his feet.

"Hey!" Ryou yelled suddenly, causing all conscious persons in the room to flinch involuntarily and turn to the normally-quiet albino in surprise. "The testosterone battles need to stop," he advised. "We have no time for your immaturity-"

"Who're ya callin' immature, ya limey faggot?!"

Bakura let out a furious hiss at the same time that Tristan yelled Joey's name loudly in surprise. Ryou merely frowned in thought at the unexpected and somewhat-uncharacteristic reaction from the blonde. He watched observantly as Joey blinked dumbly, and then suddenly sat down on his hindquarters, staring at the bed sheets.

"What da hell," he murmured to himself, causing Ryou's frown to deepen and Tristan and Bakura to stare at him.

"Joey, are you quite all right?" Ryou asked in concern.

Two large chocolate orbs met his light crimson gaze. "I dunno what dat was, Ryou, but I'm sorry," Joey apologized with deep sincerity. "I ain't got nothin' against ya likin' guys. Hell, _I_ like guys. Girls, too, yeahs, I likes girls, too, 'cuz dey pretty an' dey smell real nice, but guys, too, an'-"

"Joey," Ryou interrupted softly, sounding amused as he scratched his friend behind the ears, "shut up."

Joey obliged, seeming pleased by the attention his ears were getting. He tilted his head into Ryou's touch, his thick tail wagging happily. As Ryou's right hand continued to rub through the blonde's soft fur, he placed his left hand over the curve of the dog's head and closed his eyes.

He was trying to reach the source of Joey's odd behavior, stretching out his mind to find what had caused him to lash out at Ryou, when normally the blonde duelist would never turn on his friends for anything. He brushed passed memories he had no right to view and dodged around countless dreams waiting to be fulfilled, before he reached a part of Joey's mind that was filled with a magic that had no right to be there.

It was golden, or it felt golden, and old but somehow… familiar. Ryou frowned as feelings of archaic powers, forgotten times, and ancient tombs met his mind's eye.

_Odd… it's almost like Yami's powers… could it be…_

Before he could continue his musings, he heard Tristan release a surprised gasp, and Bakura cried out his name in strangled shock.

Ryou opened his eyes and blinked thoughtfully at what he saw. He drew back from Joey, causing the canine to open his eyes and stare in surprise.

Ryou said nothing as he let his right hand fall to his side, bringing his left up before his eyes. The normally-pale flesh was covered in a thick layer of fur as white as his hair. Ryou flexed the hand that had somehow become a paw.

Somehow…

Curious, suspicious, Ryou reached out with his mind and again touched the golden magic within Joey's mind. In reaction, the blonde duelist's chocolate eyes closed trancelike. The magic within him reacted swiftly, eager to please, and the transformation spell spread further along Ryou's body.

Bakura cried out for Ryou to stop, but the albino ignored him. He had a theory and he needed to see it through.

The white fur spread like fire across his flesh, and he ignored how his bones cracked unpleasantly as they shifted form from human to… something else. He held his mind parallel with the consciousness of the spell, admiring that it was almost a living entity, itself.

"_Who commands you?" _he asked the spell.

'_You do,' _it replied eagerly.

"_Yes, but from where were you born?"_

'_Ancient powers… darkness… the child that was lost long ago. We were birthed with the blood of a mortal god.'_

_A mortal god, _Ryou mused, thinking over his memories of ancient mythology. Pharaohs were thought to be the incarnations of gods. _"The royal family?" _he asked for confirmation.

'_Yes.'_

"_Yami… er, Atemu?" _Ryou didn't think that was possible. Yami wouldn't do this.

'_No… no… she who was lost to Pharaoh Atemu long ago. Sagira Larien… the immortal princess of Egypt.'_

Ryou opened his eyes, pulling his consciousness away from the spell, to find that he was sitting lower on the floor. The spell had transformed him completely and he could feel it residing now within his own mind. He was sure that he could use that to his advantage, but before he was able to think on it too deeply, he raised his eyes to the window and saw the person standing outside of it, watching him.

Heavily tanned skin, long black hair streaked with midnight blue and wild bangs that shadowed her eyes.

Eyes that were locked onto Ryou's with a dark blue, suffocating glare.

A voice erupted within Ryou's mind. _"You have discovered my secret, Ryou Bakura, and you alone will have control over your transformation." _The blue eyes flashed crimson for a moment, before the girl suddenly vanished, as though she had never been. _"Mind you don't misuse your power, young one, or I will take it from you."_

* * *

**Umbrae: **^^ Here's to hoping everyone liked the chapter. As a note, I know Joey's comment was horribly rude, so I wanted to point out that I have nothing against homosexual relationships (I myself am bisexual, and I _am_ writing a yaoi fic). You'll find out later why Joey was so "angry" at Ryou, though you might be able to figure it out, if you can guess what kind of animal Ryou turned into. ^^ I have to run to school, so review responses really quick!

_**MysticalElfGirl: **_And I'm very glad for that!

_**Crimythest Love: **_Well, now you know a bit – Sagira is the one who has been turning them all into animals, and she's not through, yet. Glad I've got you on your toes. I hope you liked the chapter.

_**Jisa: **_He is, isn't he? I'd call him a wimp, but I really can't blame him. Oh, and don't expect anything less than an army of cliffhangers from me. ^^

_**YugiYamiFanGirl: **_You'll be finding that out next chapter, but don't forget that there wasn't just three scars. Yugi's entire torso is covered with scars – three just stood out to Yami.

_**Crystal Knight of Gemstone: **_Thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying it!

_**WhiteAsukalover: **_You'll find out next chapter, I promise.

**Umbrae: **Thank you, everyone, for reading, and I'm glad you all enjoyed it. Next chapter, we'll be back with Yami, as he's traversing through Yugi's mind, trying to find him amidst the darkness, and we'll learn more about Yugi's past and why he has so many scars, both physical and mental. Thank you all for reading, I hope you enjoyed it and, as always…

_Live long. Live well. Write. Read. Dream. _


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: **This dialogue was written forever ago, when I originally started the chapter, so it's old, but I don't feel like changing it, so enjoy!

**Umbrae: **Mind you, this isn't going to be posted for a few more days, but I would like to take a moment to comment on the fact that I hate snow with the passion of a thousand blazing suns, waiting to burn the earth into submission beneath the raging fires of Hell, or its equivalent, depending on your belief system.

**Ryou: **Normally, that would seem to be quite a bit of overkill, but I think in this circumstance, you have a right to be overly-dramatic.

**Umbrae: **Thank you, Ryou. Obviously, no one has a bloody clue what I'm talking about-

**Bakura: **And how, exactly, is that different from normal?

**Umbrae: **Shut up. I had a car accident earlier today. Nothing serious, mind you, but it could have been, if not for some quick thinking and the existence of a wonderful snow bank. I had to swerve off the road and into said snowbank to avoid sliding out into the middle of an intersection and hitting the tree on the other side, if not a car beforehand. Now, I'm fine, so nobody needs to worry, except I'm extremely sore, my neck hurts, and I had to work tonight despite said accident… though I think I did well on my French test today, regardless).

**Ryou: **YAY!

**Umbrae: **But I would like to take a minute to bitch out my township, which _SUCKS ASS_ at getting our roads plowed. Granted, I live on the mountain, out in the middle of bloody-ass nowhere, and I love it, but for the sake of the _children_ who live around me, PLOW THE GOD-DAMNED ROAD, YOU FUCKERS!!! Ahem… I'm sorry, but my brother had a horrible accident last year that could have resulted in his death if one thing had gone differently, and a dear friend of mine just passed away late 2008 in a car accident. And this road that I had my accident on had no cinders or anything on it, save for the inch-thick layer of solid ICE.

**Joey/Bakura/Ryou: **((hiding))

**Umbrae: **Okay… I'm better now. I had a really busy day after all that and I'm finally getting my time to rant. I could go on and bitch about how I was passed (sitting with my car nosedived down into this bank for 45 minutes) by quite a few people. _One_ person stopped and it was a kind older gentlemen who couldn't have helped me because his truck wasn't powerful enough to pull me out, but he stopped to make sure that I was okay, and no one else (not even the stupid service vehicles) stopped to make sure that I was all right. But you know, that's just what this world had come to. People suck. Where's the chivalry and kindness? Somebody held a door open for me the other day. I was in _awe_. It should be horrifying that we are in awe when someone does something kind for others. Sadly… it had become the norm. ((sigh)) Anyways, sorry, but I needed to rant and I'm too lazy to open my blog. Plus, you guys actually reply here. No one replies to my blog… ah well, you didn't come here to listen to me bitch. You want the story, and so you shall have it. Thanks for listening/reading, have a wonderful day, drive safe, wear your seatbelts, and, as always…

_Live long. Live well. Write. _

**Light Summons**

**VI**

A closet door.

In a person's bedroom, this was a common thing to find. It's often where you hang your clothes, store your shoes, or keep extra toys. It's nothing strange or reason at all to cause one to turn their head. Such a common occurrence, it is easily overlooked.

But in a Soul Room, there are no closets. At least, not normally.

A person's Soul Room defines who they are to the deepest extent possible. One who has access to someone's Soul Room has access to every secret that said person holds within their hearts. Yami thought that he'd had a labyrinth Soul Room because of his inability to recall the past, up until they had learned all of who he was.

Now… now, he wasn't so sure.

For there was a closet in Yugi's Soul Room – one that Yami had never noticed before but that, he knew, had always been there. A closet, in which hid a labyrinth so elaborate that it put Yami's Soul Room to shame.

Yami's Soul Room had been constructed from instinct, to resemble an ancient tomb of the Egyptian Pharaoh that he was. It was labyrinthine to mimic the state of his mind – a confusing array of dead ends where memories suddenly halted.

Yugi's Soul Room contained a labyrinth that, itself, was hidden. A labyrinth filled with traps and, as Yami found, monsters to protect the secrets that lay within.

This labyrinth was constructed by choice.

_What secrets have you kept hidden from even me, Aibou? _Yami mused.

He hadn't assumed that Yugi held any secrets. After the boy had solved the Millennium Puzzle, Yami had spent weeks filtering through his memories, absorbing knowledge and information. He knew his enemies, his friends, the language, history, how horrible he was in English class… why had it never occurred to him that he never encountered memories of Yugi's parents? Why had it never made him wonder why, no matter how deeply he dug through the boy's memories, he never saw him without his skin covered? Why hadn't he ever considered the missing pieces?

He supposed the answer was simple: because Yugi gave him no reason to question what he knew. Not only did the boy seem completely pure, full of innocence and uncorrupted light, but he always looked happy, acted happy, _felt happy_.

But he wasn't, was he? No, he was just one hell of an actor, and very manipulative when he needed to be. Even if it was done subconsciously, he had manipulated Yami into not seeing the door that led to his deepest secrets, manipulated him into not realizing that he should question why Yugi lived with his grandfather. Manipulated, manipulated, manipulated.

_And I locked you out, _Yami thought to himself. _Yugi… I'm so sorry…_

He moved cautiously down the corridor, sharp eyes scanning the darkened walls around him. Once, already, he had been attacked by the Feral Imp. He didn't want to attack in return, worried that doing damage to the creatures within the confines of Yugi's mind might do damage to the boy himself, and he had been forced to run away.

_Screw pride, _Yami snarled mentally, _I just want to find my aibou. _

He stopped suddenly when there was a deviation from the tedious repetition of walls and dark corridors.

A door.

_Hmmm… I know I'm probably expected to take that door. So… should I? _He frowned, but then thought of where he was: within Yugi's mind. Yugi, who he was determined to save, to protect, and whom he loved deeply. Yugi, who had told him that he loved him, had always loved him, and always would love him, when they were in the Shadow Realm. Yugi, his soulmate, would never betray him.

Yami smiled, and opened the door.

* * *

Yugi opened his eyes slowly, confusion heavy on his mind. He heard a gasp from his side and turned to see his friends all sitting around him.

"Guys," he mumbled in surprise, "what're you doing here?"

"Whaddaya mean what're we doin' here? We was worried 'bout ya, Yug!"

"Yeah," Tristan agreed. "Look, man, I know you've been down lately, ever since Atemu left-"

"Wait a second!" Yugi demanded, sitting up abruptly. "Yami left?! Where'd he go?!" His violet eyes scanned the room, as though he would see the pharaoh there.

The others all shared a look, before Tea turned to address him. "Yugi… Atemu moved on to the Afterlife, don't you remember?"

"No! No, he stayed!" Yugi argued, his body tensing. He felt himself immediately on edge. He didn't know why, but a sudden, overwhelming chill of fear had risen within him. He knew that Atemu had stayed, so why was he suddenly so worried? This was beginning to sound like the nightmares that he'd had weeks after the Ceremonial Duel, but things had ended differently. "Yami stayed! He stayed with me!"

A sympathetic look came over Tea's face and she reached out to take Yugi's hand in hers. "Yugi… have you been having that dream again?" She offered him a sad smile. "I know you wanted him to stay, but he just didn't belong here."

"Of course he belongs here!" Yugi argued vehemently. "He belongs with me! He promised he'd never leave me! He _promised_!"

But as he argued with them, his memories of the ceremonial duel came back to him, and he recalled the discussion that came afterwards. The one that shattered his heart into more pieces than what made up the Millennium Puzzle…

_Yami was just about to step through the doorway when Yugi ran up behind him. "Yami!" he cried. "Please, don't go!"_

_Yami turned to face him. "My name is Atemu now, Yugi," he corrected, "and I must go. There is no reason for me to remain here." _

_Yugi felt pain well within his heart at the words, but he wouldn't be deterred. "What about me?" he asked, gazing into Yami's deep crimson eyes. "I… I love you, Yami," he said softly. "Please… please stay." _

_Yami raised a slender eyebrow at the boy. "As I said," he repeated, his eyes narrowing slightly in disgust, "I have no reason to remain here." _

"_But I-"_

"_Your feelings are of no concern to me, Yugi," Yami snapped. "I've finally reached my goal. I can leave this world and return to my family. Finally, I can escape this hell I've been living for the past three years, trapped within the body of a…" He raised an eyebrow. "Well… none worthy of me, that's for sure." _

_His words hit a spot deep within Yugi's heart. The boy didn't remove his gaze from Yami's, but tears slid down his cheeks. "You don't mean that," he whispered. _

"_Don't I?" Yami asked, and turned back around to face the door. He looked back over his shoulder and smirked cruelly at Yugi. "Believe me," he assured the boy, "the only thing that could make this better was if I could take back everything that I had done to help you. Such a waste of time, helping a pathetic weakling like you." _

_Yugi took a step back out of shock, tears streaming down his face. "Y-Yami…"_

_The Pharaoh turned and walked through the doorway, the light consuming him as he took his place next to his long-passed kin, all of them gazing out at Yugi with looks of revulsion and disgust. _

_Yami's final words echoed throughout the chamber, shattering the poor boy's heart in two._

"_Good riddance, Yugi Moto…"_

**

* * *

**

Yami found himself in an unfamiliar house. He wasn't sure how stepping through the doorway had managed to take him out of Yugi's mind, unless…

He saw a small child suddenly dart around the corner and race past him, completely oblivious to his existence.

_Of course, _Yami mused, _this is a memory. _He studied the small boy, who couldn't possibly be more than eight years old. _Is that… Yugi? _

A short, pale-skinned child, with hair far too large for his body, inky black, with golden bangs that hung over his face and hid his violet eyes. It _was_ Yugi. Of course it was.

"Mommy!" Yami heard the little boy cry, and he had the sudden urge to follow. He walked briskly down a hallway and found himself within a bedroom, a young woman kneeling on the floor and hugging her son tightly.

She had hair that reached almost to her hips, as black as ink and seeming to shine as coal. Her eyes, so full of kindness but also bearing a deep sadness, were a gorgeous sapphire blue. Her skin was pale, like her son's, but there was something wrong with it.

Were those bruises?

"Mommy," little Yugi whispered, and Yami heard the fear in his voice that he hadn't caught before. He saw the heavy tears falling silently from his eyes, which he had previously been blind to.

Why was he crying?

"I don't want to leave, Mommy," Yugi whispered. "Please don't make me leave."

The woman ran her fingers lovingly through her son's soft but wild hair. "It's all right, baby," she reassured him softly, but she seemed to wince as she moved her arm, "it won't be for very long. You're just going to spend a few days with Grandpa, and I'll come as soon as I can."

Yugi broke away from his mother's grasp, looking at her and biting his lip in a nervous manner not befitting a child of his age. "Is Daddy gonna be mad that I'm leaving?" he asked softly, his voice barely audible.

"Don't you worry about your father, baby," she replied, caressing his cheek. "You just have fun with Grandpa."

"You promise you'll come get me?" he whimpered.

"I promise, sweetheart," his mother replied, but Yami saw the pain on her face, and the haunted look in her blue eyes. She was lying.

He followed Yugi as the boy walked outside, carrying a plastic backpack larger than himself, stuffed full of clothes and little toys and puzzles. Parked outside of the house, at the end of the walk, was a yellow taxi cab, with an older gentlemen standing in front of it. Though he was much younger than Yami was used to, he recognized the man immediately.

"Solomon…" Yugi's grandfather. He hardly looked any different from the present version of himself, to be truthful. He had a few less wrinkles in this memory, but the fire in his eyes hadn't dimmed over the years. There was something in his gaze, however… a knowledge. Yami saw a sadness there as he looked back at the house, Yugi crawling into the back seat of the cab.

_He knows,_ Yami thought, watching that sad look descend upon Solomon's face. He knew that Yugi's mother would not be coming to get the boy. Of course he knew.

"Hey! Where do you think you're taking him?!"

The shout called Yami's attention, as well as the attention of everyone else. He turned swiftly to see a tall, large-muscled man standing next to the taxi. His hair stuck up in all direction, star-shaped like Yugi's, and as red as fire. His eyes were the same shade of violet as Yugi's and Solomon's. It was fairly obvious that this was Yugi's father, and Solomon's son. He looked so much like them.

Except where they had kindness in their eyes, Yami saw only hatred in this man's.

He slammed his hands down on the trunk of the car, snarling into the back window and causing Yugi to duck down fearfully to hide himself. "Where do you think you're going, you damned pup?!" he snarled. "Get the hell out of there!"

Yami heard a whimper come from the backseat, but his little aibou did not emerge.

Yugi's father rounded on Solomon. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" he demanded. "Where are you taking him?!"

Solomon raised his hands in an attempt to placate his son – an attempt that Yami already knew was futile. "Easy, son. Yugi's just coming over to spend the night with me at the shop-"

"The hell he is!" Reaching into the taxi cab, the man grabbed Yugi by the scruff of the next and yanked him out, eliciting a fearful cry of pain from the boy. Yugi staggered as his father released his hold on the shirt, and the boy cowered beneath the vicious glare sent his way. "I will not have you running off, you damned shit," he snarled. He turned his glare to his father. "Leave, old man. I have no time for you."

"Look, son, can't we just-"

Yami had expected yelling, perhaps a thrown punch, and vicious words, but even he hadn't considered that Yugi's father would have a gun on him, and be willing to pull it on his own father.

"We're through here, old man. Now can it."

"Son-"

"Shut UP!"

The door to the house opened and Yugi's mother came running out. "Rearick, stop this now!"

"Shut up, you dumb bitch! This is all your fault, anyway!" He turned the gun on her and pulled the trigger.

Yugi let out a frenzied cry of fear as his mother collapsed to the ground, blood running from a wound in her chest. Yami wanted to run and comfort him, but the world around him was darkening into shadows, and then he wasn't anywhere at all…

* * *

Yugi was sitting alone in his room, his friends having gone home at his request. He wanted to be alone. Alone and away from other people, his only companions his thoughts, the silence, and the razor blade he had found in the medicine cabinet. It was old and slightly rusted, but that didn't matter. Not for what he was planning.

Yami hated him. _Had_ hated him. He had left because he couldn't stand to be around Yugi. Yugi was weak. He drug his friends down, but maybe they only stayed with him out of pity or some feeling of obligation.

Pulling up the sleeve of his jacket, he revealed the scarred flesh of his arm. He remembered all of these scars and their origin. Most were from his father's abuses, both before and after the man had killed Yugi's mother. Solomon had called the police, but Yugi's father had a lot of influence. It took too long for them to come and steal Yugi away from his father's "care." The man had nearly killed him with that knife, and had tried again, this time by cutting his throat, when they came to take him away.

He'd gone to live with his grandfather, but the image of his mother lying on the ground in a pool of her own blood, slowly dying, never left his mind. It haunted his dreams and, one day, he'd finally had enough. A pity his grandfather found him before he was able to bleed to death.

But Solomon Moto was not home now, and there was no one to stop him.

Placing the sharp edge of the razor against his wrist, he traced over the thin white scar already present, planning to do it right this time.

He grinned as he watched the blood flow effortlessly down his arm. It was all over now. The pain would be gone… soon…

Maybe if he was dead, Yami would want him?

* * *

Yami was pondering the darkness that surrounded him, when a shot of pain passed through his chest that made his gasp for breath, curling up into a ball and trying to will away the agony.

"What… what's happening?"

"_You aibou is dying." _

"What?!" Yami forced himself upright and scanned the darkness, but no one was visible. "Who are you? What are you talking about?"

"_My identity is unimportant in the face of greater things, Atem. As for what I am talking about, I have already told you. Your aibou is dying. Within his soul, he is taking his own life to escape a past that exists only in his fears. He is not long for this world." _

The pain flashed again and Yami cried out, clenching his jaw tightly in hopes to will silence into his heart. "What… can't I do something?! How can I help him?!"

"_I can offer him life, Atem. I can stay his hand and still the blood-flow, but all things come at a price."_

"Anything!" Yami gasped. "Anything!" The pain was becoming a dull ache now, a lingering force that would not leave, but left him weak. "I will give you anything! Just save him! What do you want?"

"_Memory…"_

"Then take it! Take it! Just save him!" He closed his eyes tightly, waiting for all of the memories he had so recently regained to be consumed again. How fitting…

A laugh called his attention; a chuckle that was both soft, but harsh, kind, but cruel. _"I will save him, Atem," _the voice assured him, _"but who says that it was _your_ memory I wanted?"_

Yami paled. "Yugi…" But the world around him, dark as it was, flickered into nothingness as he tried to make sense of things. "No, take mine! Please!"

"_I am sorry, dear brother," _the voice – it was Sagira's voice – replied, _"but your memory is needed. Your mind must remain intact for this plan to work." _

"What plan?"

"_All in due time, my brother. All in due time. Now awaken, Atem, and face the world from a new perspective. Teach the boy you love the truth, now that his mind is not hindered by lies." _

"Yugi…"

Yami opened his eyes. He was lying on his side and pushed himself up. Things seemed… off. Rising to his feet, he saw everyone else's eyes on him. "What's going on?" he asked.

"Erm… Yami, dude," Tristan said, shutting the door to display the full-length mirror on the back, "you may want to have a look."

Not liking the way everyone was staring at him, Yami walked over to the mirror and peered at his reflection.

A large golden-brown lion stared back.

* * *

**Umbrae: **I do not like this chapter. Just so you all know it, I think it's crap.

It was so much better in my head. Things worked out nicely, they were less choppy. However, the incident with Yugi's parents was different. Originally, Yugi's father (who I named Rearick because I like the name, oddly, and because I was too lazy to look another up) beat Yugi's mother to death, and Yugi was forced to watch.

This was why I was having so much trouble writing the chapter. I have a great relationship with my father, for which I am grateful. Writing about someone's father beating their children – despite the fact that it happens – pains me. So… this chapter didn't turn out as well as I had planned. However, I finally finished it, so now I can move on with the plot.

I apologize again for taking FOREVER in getting it out. Now that summer is here, I should have this story done before school starts up again. I know a good deal about what's going to happen. We'll just see exactly _how_ it happens.

I look forward to your reviews, even if this chapter does suck.

And now, review responses:

_**Jisa: **_Yeppers! I took a few days to actually decide what animal would best represent each character, though we'll see who all exactly gets turned into their animal. So far, Joey is a Golden Retriever, Bakura is a ferret, and Ryou is a… well, that would ruin the surprise now, wouldn't it?

_**YugiYamiFanGirl: **_Well, this chapter you got an answer to your question. I hope you liked it and thanks for reading!

_**Gothabie283: **_No… no, I can happily tell you that Ryou is _not_ a rabbit. I don't like rabbits. ^^ I miss your laptop, too. I get more reviews when you know I've updated. :-P

_**WhiteAsukalover: **_Kura-kun ^^ is a ferret, just to be specific, and his transformation will be explained in time. It's not all that important as to when it occurred, but it happened after they left the hospital, in the same manner that Joey became a dog.

_**SilverDragon-Purity: **_I figured if I mentioned emotional pain, as well, it would lessen the power of the sentence. Naturally, there is emotional pain there for all to see, and all will be seen, I assure you. And now, Ryou is not a rabbit or a cat, though a few cats will make their appearances later – one rather soon, in fact. And your sarcasm amuses me, so fear not.

_**Happinessxandxrainbows: **_Love is love, in my opinion, and I simply wanted to mention that, because that was a rather rude comment to come out of Joey's mouth. I didn't think anyone _would_ think that I had something against homosexuality, but I figured I'd be proactive. ^^

_**Lightest'Ink: **_I really don't know what to say to that… ^^ But it did make me laugh.

_**Yami no Serena: **_You have your answer. ^^ Hope you enjoyed!

_**Crimythest Love: **_Joey is such a fun character. I'm having a lot of fun writing out his accent (it's good practice), and he's so hotheaded and adorable – like a fiery little puppy dog. ^^ Oh, and for the sake of clarification, they don't choose which animal they're going to be – their animal depends on their personalities and their souls. Joey is a puppy because he is naturally loyal and trustworthy. Bakura is a ferret because he is sneaky, sly, and thieving. Ryou is a fox because foxes hold many secrets and a great deal of mythology holds them in powerful regard magically. Sagira meant that Ryou would be able to control his transformation in the manner that he could choose to be human or animal, but none of them have a choice as to what animal they become. ^^ That is predetermined by yours truly. I'm glad you're liking it so far and I hope you enjoyed this chapter, as well.

_**Zetake: **_Thanks!!

_**Ning Jun: **_Ummm… yes to all aforementioned. ^^ I love cliffhangers and drama, but I also do adore your reviews. Thanks for adding to my collection! ^^

**MysticalElfGirl: **I'm glad you're caught up and that you liked it. I hope this chapter was okay...

_Live long. Live well. Write. Read. Dream. _


	7. Chapter 7

**Umbrae: **I don't suppose begging for forgiveness would help? -.-'

I do apologize for having taken incredibly far too long in updating this fic. I promise you, I was not spending my time lazing around. I have, unfortunately, been incredibly busy working two jobs, going to school, and trying to finish my novel. That may not sound like much, but… it's incredibly stressful, especially since my boss at the one job is verbally and emotionally abusive. My mom is the owner of the second business and I'm trying to help her get word out so that I can work for her full-time and quit the other place before it literally kills me.

As is currently stated in my profile, I'm hoping to finish this fic up by the end of January, at the latest, and if things go well, I will manage it. We _have_ reached a pinnacle, so if I'm not mistaken, some major action will be starting soon, so the chapters will hopefully flow faster. Please do bear with me, though. I'm having a bit of a rough time in the real world.

A very special thanks to Kagimine, who sent me a PM and kindly reminded me that people are still wanting to read this fic, and haven't run away completely for lack of updates. I decided that I really wanted to submit something and assure you all that I _will_ continue to update, so here is the next chapter. I can't tell you when I will manage to have the next written, but I can promise that _will_ come.

I thank you all for bearing with me and being patient. I hope you all have a lovely holiday, whatever you celebrate, and, as always…

_Live long. Live well. Write. _

_

* * *

_

**Light Summons**

**VII**

"We're running out of time."

"I know, love, I know, but they must all be protected."

"You don't have strength to protect them all, Sagira. Take which ones you need. Leave the rest. It will give them reason to fight."

"This is my brother. He needs no reason to fight other than that it is right."

"Your brother has changed. He is not the same as he was before. He followed your father's footsteps as king. He would kill us both if he knew."

"Not _my_ brother."

"Yes, Sagira – even Atemu. We are dead to him, my love. Dead. Let us save the world, once last time, before we are permitted to die."

"… of course, love."

* * *

_"I can't believe he doesn't remember us," Tristan said, glancing over at where Joey was keeping Yugi entertained while the two of them stood talking softly in a corner of the room. "Yami-"_

_"It was that or let him die," Yami said, interrupting whatever Tristan was about to say. "I couldn't let him destroy himself. I'm sorry, but… I was thinking she would take my memory, or even my life. Not his. Not Yugi's."_

That had been ten minutes ago, and no Yami stood in the hallway outside of Ryou's bedroom, his crimson eyes focused on the floor. Ryou had dragged him out of the room the first moment that he had been able to without too much suspicion from anyone but Bakura, who of course understood Ryou's thoughts. The albino had shut the door to keep the others from overhearing what was being said, but now that the two of them were alone, Yami was unable to meet Ryou's stern, almost glaring, gaze.

Yugi had woken up only a few minutes after Yami, but the reaction he had to everyone's presence was… less than comforting. He had no idea who any of them was.

He had no recollection of who _he_ even was. Joey had needed to tell the boy his name, so he knew what to call himself. The others had seemed equal parts unsure and over-ready to introduce themselves. They went around, each of them revealing who they were and what relationship they held with Yugi.

When it had come to Yami's turn, however, he had lied to the boy.

"_Were you a human before, too?" Yugi asked. One of the things that had surprised but pleased the lot of them was how easily Yugi had accepted that magic existed, and that it had turned Joey into a dog and Bakura into a ferret, and now Yami into a lion. _

"_Yes," Yami had replied, his weariness and reluctance evident in his posture and his eyes. "I'm Atemu." _

"_Atemu," Yugi repeated, as he had done with all of their names, trying to commit it to memory. When he was satisfied, he met Yami's crimson gaze again, not at all wary of staring into the face of a lion large enough to take his whole head into his mouth at once. "And we're friends, too?"_

"_No," Yami replied, which was partially true, really. Yami and Yugi had been more than friends before Yami had screwed that all up. There was a way to fix that now, however. He knew his dull tone had alerted the ever-perceptive Bakura, but the tomb robber didn't say anything. That was for the best, of course. Perhaps Ryou knew that, and that was why he wasn't saying anything, either. _

_Yami wouldn't realize until later how the albino's eyes had been wide, his face a mask of dread at what Yami was doing, his irises dancing with the desire to keep him from saying anything, though something held him back. _

"_We hate each other," Yami continued, his tone miraculously emotionless despite the pain he felt inside with those words. _

_To his surprise, Yugi had smiled softly at this. Innocently. "If we hate each other, then why are you here?"_

_Yami, however, had questioned that himself, and he already had an answer. "I was bored," he said tonelessly, and gazed into the boy's eyes without care or concern evident in the crimson irises. _

_He saw a flicker of hesitation on the boy's face, and he turned away, satisfied. Yugi might have thought that he was lying, of course, but the doubt he had seen on the boy's face would fester and grow, until it overcame him. Then, when the boy knew without a doubt that they hated each other, Yugi wouldn't be in danger anymore. _

_It was better this way. _

"You shouldn't have lied to him."

Yami sighed, glancing briefly at the albino. "It's for his own good."

"People say that a lot," Ryou said. "It's not a very good excuse."

"No. No, it's not. He's safer without me, though."

"Of course," Ryou said, nodding in consent. "You're more than right in that regard." Yami looked away, pained. "Safer is one thing, however, Yami, and happiness is quite another." He tilted his head to the side, thoughtfully. "I don't think you ever really realized just how much Yugi loved you."

Yami looked away quickly, his expression pained. He heard Ryou sigh. "I won't say anything to him," the albino said assuredly. "I know that's what you're worried about, but I won't. This is your problem to deal with. The others and I are here for Yugi. But you better be, too."

Yami swiftly turned to look back at Ryou. "But-"

"But nothing!" Ryou snapped. "I'm not stupid, Atemu – I'm psychic. I know what you were planning, and I can promise you right now that as little as I will tell Yugi about the truth concerning his relationship with you, that is just how great an amount of effort I will place in making absolutely certain that you don't abandon that boy! And if you even consider running away, Yami, you can make sure to note that it would be incredibly foolhardy on your part. Not only will I hunt you down and find you, but I will handcuff you to Yugi, so I know you're there to protect him."

"_I'm_ the reason he's always getting hurt," Yami argued.

"You're right," Ryou said, nodding, "because without you around, he'd already be _dead_! Face it, Yami – you're in it for the long haul." He crouched down suddenly, until he was eye level with the lion that the pharaoh had become. "Yami…" His voice had become softer, suddenly – more like the young boy that he was than the wizened sage he sometimes sounded like. Still, there was a way about him that seemed _older_ – like he had been born long ago and lived through thousands of lives, retaining knowledge from every one. "You seem to think the opposite, so I must tell you – I don't think that Yugi's memories are indefinitely gone."

Yami stiffened, and then looked to the albino, his ears flattening against his head in wary hope. Ryou continued as though he had spoken for clarification – and perhaps the psychic had heard the need.

"You said that Sagira spoke to you while you were within the darkness – that _she_ was the one who stole Yugi's memories, while saving his life. Yami, I have _seen_ here. She was just outside of the window while you were searching for Yugi's soul. She spoke to me in my mind, though I don't know how. She explained that I would have the power to control _my _transformation."

He raised his left arm and concentrated on that golden aura of power that had settled now within his own mind. White fur sprouted across his arms, his trimmed fingernails extending into claws. He saw Yami's wide eyes staring at him, and he released the magic, letting the transformation fall away, until his arm had returned to normal.

"If I'm not mistaken, Yami, she's done more than take Yugi's memories. She's also the cause of these transformations into animals. First Joey turns into a Golden Retriever, then Bakura turns into a ferret, and now you're a lion. There's no mistaking, of course, that something is happening that concerns us."

"Does it ever _not_?"

"Oh, dear… Tea." Ryou had a sympathetic look on his face as he gazed down at the end of the hall. "I didn't hear you come in, though that makes sense, I suppose."

Tea sighed. "Yeah, well… this wasn't exactly on my list of things to do today." The brunette walked forward toward them, on four paws rather than two legs. Ryou and Yami watched her come closer, studying her form.

Small, sinewy, her body was lithe and muscular under a thin layer of brown fur. She had a long, thin tail tipped in black, which she held high as she walked, and her blue eyes seemed both annoyed and resigned.

"And Tea makes four."

"Five, if you count that I can control my transformation." Ryou smiled grimly. "It will be all of us, soon, if things continue this way."

"Do you think that's what she wants?" Yami asked, sitting down wearily and looking at the albino.

"One can assume," Ryou said, tipping his head in the affirmative.

"Who?" Tea asked, sitting down delicately and wrapping a sinewy tail around her paws. Yami took a moment to appreciate that she seemed completely balanced in her form, moving within it as though it were completely naturally and she hadn't just recently been turned into a cat.

"Sagira Larien," Ryou said helpfully, "Yami's sister. It seems that she is somehow still alive, despite there being no Millennium Items left for her to hold to have kept her spirit this long. I do believe that she is the cause of most of what we are suffering at the moment. Not the least of which is Yugi's memory loss." He glanced her way to see a reaction.

Tea shook her head. "Tristan called me," she said. "He explained what had happened over the phone, so I wouldn't come over and be shocked, or… break down." She sighed. "Why does this keep happening to us?"

"Normally, I think people just want to remove a threat, and we seem to be the greatest in this area. This time, however…" He shook his head slowly, an unsure expression on his face. "I think there's more to this than we understand of yet – a lot more, if I'm right. And the only way we're going to learn all that we need to know is to find Yami's sister."

"And how exactly are we going to do that?"

Ryou smiled at this, in a way that was almost a frightening replica of Bakura's victorious grin. "Who's the one person you know who can gain access to almost any information he needs, with just one click of a button?"

Tea tilted her head to the side in confusion, before her eyes suddenly widened. "Oh no, you have got to be kidding me," she said loudly, almost hissing in disbelief.

Ryou's grin widened. "_Exactly_. We need to find Sagira, and he's our best chance."

"Yes, but _Kaiba_?! He'll never agree!"

"Oh, I think he will. You see, I happen to know that we aren't the only ones who have been turned into animals. Mokuba Kaiba seems to be suffering from something more than just having been turned into a wolf."

"And what's that?" Yami asked, wary.

Ryou chuckled. "Fleas."

* * *

**Umbrae: **I don't have a whole lot to say here that I didn't say before the chapter. I also need to get up early tomorrow and work both jobs, so I am going to skip out on review responses this time, and simply post the chapter.

Thank you all for your wishes on my exams, and for the birthday wishes. I apologize for not updating sooner and hope that you will all still grace me with your reviews. I will try to update again soon.

Have a lovely holiday, and if you don't celebrate the holiday, then have a lovely _day_!

_Live long. Live well. Write. Read. Dream. _


	8. Chapter 8

**Umbrae: **Happy New Year, everyone! Here's a New Year's gift for all my devoted readers! I hope you enjoy it and, as always…

_Live long. Live well. Write. _

_

* * *

_

**Light Summons**

**VIII**

**

* * *

**

"I'm glad we're here," Joey said, his tail wagging so ferociously that his entire backside was shaking from side to side. "I'm gonna find the cleanest carpet in da house, an' piss on it."

Tristan groaned, planting his head in a hand. "Joey, could you maybe behave, just this once?"

"Wha' for?" Joey demanded, growling at Tristan. "I don't owe Kaibe any favors!"

"No, but we _could_ use his help," Tea said. It was a testament to the friendship they had that she was not, even in the form of a cat, too distressed to sit down beside him and curl her tail around her paws.

"And I daresay that he could use ours," Ryou said, and with that began to walk forward. Joey and Tea glanced at each other, before both leapt to their feet and raced after the albino. Their four paws carried them faster than Tristan's legs could him, and they quickly beat the briskly-walking Ryou. Joey took a running leap trying to reach the doorbell, but was clearly not capable of making such a jump. He went crashing into the door and collapsed onto the porch, his paws sticking up. It had the same effect.

The door opened, revealing a butler. He glanced at Tristan and Ryou, as they reached the porch, and then down at the cat sitting calmly by the golden retriever, peering up at him from behind an oversized pair of paws.

"Ah yes," he said, and stepped back, opening the door wider, "I can see you'll fit right in here."

"Excuse me?" Tristan asked, cocking an eyebrow.

The butler gave Tristan a withering stare. "Master Kaiba and young Master Mokuba are upstairs," he said, his tone sounded weary but bored. He shut the door behind their group and swiftly walked passed them, muttering, "This is turning into a circus. Now all we need is the _LION_!!" With a startled scream, the butler leapt backward up the stairs, as Bakura came scampering into the room, Yugi right behind him.

"Don't worry, that's jus' my buddy, Yami!" Joey said loudly.

The butler gave a short, hysterical laugh. "I don't get paid enough for this!"

Tristan winced as the man collapsed soundly on the stairs in a dead faint. "He'll feel that in the mornin'."

"Yes, well, let's leave him be." Ryou said, starting up the stairs and walking around the unconscious butler.

"But, shouldn't we move him… somewhere?" Tea asked. She had stepped up to the man and poked him gently with a paw. Her ears were flattened against her skull in caution, though she seemed to relax when the man didn't move.

"He'll be fine," Ryou said, glancing back at her… down at her. He sighed. This was going to take some getting used to. "He's probably safer there than he would be anywhere else, to tell you the truth."

"Safer?" Tea asked, the fur on her tail fluffing up on instinct. "Why do you say that?"

Ryou sighed, glancing at the floor. "I… don't know all of it, Tea. There are bits and pieces that are coming to my attention, but nothing concrete. It's as though everything is still in motion, still being decided. I don't know anything for certain, yet, except that we are in the midst of something much larger than we think – something much greater and deeper than we would have expected. I don't know all of what it is, yet, and considering everything that has happened so far… I can't really be sure that what I do think I know is _true_."

"Wait, if you're…" Joey glanced around to make sure nowhere conscious was within earshot. "If you're psychic, den how could ya not know somethin' was true?"

Ryou shook his head. "There's deep magic at work here, guys. I've felt it – golden and ancient. It all someone links back to Sagira."

"She's da one dat's turned us all into animals." Joey growled low in his throat.

"And that's what we're doing here, so can we stop pissing around and find the geek?" Bakura asked, climbing up to sit on Ryou's shoulder.

"The butler said that he and Mokuba were on the second floor," Tristan said helpfully.

"Den let's go!" Joey said, and leapt up the stairs. He ignored his friends' cries to wait and ran down the marble hallway and out of sight.

Ryou's face paled slightly and he felt Bakura stiffen on his shoulder, as his yami saw the psychic albino's vision through their link.

"We need to get the mutt a leash," Bakura growled.

"Yes," Ryou whispered weakly, "as soon as we're done here." He ignored his friends' looks of confusion and concern, and walked down the second floor hall.

* * *

"Mokuba, get _back_ here!"

"No, Seto! That stuff smells horrible!"

"No, it doesn't! Now get back here!"

Joey's ears perked up at the familiar voices, though the sound of a bark sounded decidedly unfamiliar, and the shattering of glass wasn't something that he generally associated with the "I'm so perfect" Seto Kaiba.

Joey's steps slowed as the sounds grew closer and he came to the door he thought they were coming from, and pressed his nose in the small crack, nudging it open further. He sent his head through the door next and peered around the room until he spotted Kaiba.

The tall brunette was bent over, his back to Joey. He was huffing for breath and clearly straining against something, though Joey couldn't see what it was from this angle. He quietly slipped into the room, or tried to. He winced when the door creaked, and whatever Kaiba was struggling with stopped moving.

"What was that?"

Joey cocked his head to the side, his ears flopping. That sounded like Mokuba.

There was a moment of silence, before all hell seemed to break loose.

Kaiba was knocked backward and landed on the floor with an uncharacteristic "Oof!" There was a loud snarl, as whatever had been held tightly within his grasp was abruptly released, and a black blur almost twice the size of Joey pelted at him from across the room. One moment, he was standing, watching this attack, and the next he was bowled over, a huge weight on his chest, his back pressed tightly against the floor. A snarl called his attention to a set of gleaming white teeth, dripping saliva, just above his throat.

The human Joey wanted very much to curl into a ball and ask the giant dog to not eat him. The dog part of him – the instinct, the nature – had other plans, and it rose up in the face of his human cowardice.

A force tore from Joey's throat, and moments after he heard the snarl, he realized that it had come from him. He rolled, kicking, and shoved the heavy weight off of him, as he leapt to his feet and spun, a snarl ripping from his chest and steadying into a low growl. His entire body had tensed, his tail dropped low, the fur standing on end. His haunches were bent, his form low to the ground and prepared to attack, his lips pulled back to reveal dripping teeth, his eyes narrowed, the fur over his shoulders standing up like the quills of an angry porcupine.

The black dog across from him was in a similar state. Slate grey eyes were locked onto Joey's, and this made the blonde duelist-turned-dog irrationally angry, for reasons that he couldn't explain. Another snarl tore from his throat, and the black dog before him crouched down lower, snarling, as well.

The two moved at the same moment, leaping forward with matching snarls. Joey tried to grab the dog's paw between his teeth, but jerked his head back, as a set of jaws snapped wetly where his throat had been but a moment ago.

Joey lunged at the black dog again, but a pair of hands wrapped around his torso halted his movements, and then firmly yanked him backward. He gave a yelp and a snarl, fighting against the hands, snapping his teeth angrily at anything that moved too close.

"Joey! Joey, stop!"

The sound of Tristan's voice caused the blonde to stop struggling. He glanced back and caught sight of the brunette, his face strained. He looked toward the other dog, only to find him struggling against the hold on none other than Kaiba, the tall CEO looking angry.

His raised his head and his fierce blue eyes locked onto Joey's. Where he had rose up in anger against the dog at this action, he withered under Kaiba's glare, his tail tucking between his legs. He felt the desire to be unseen in both his human and dog minds, if it was possible to be of two minds. But, of course, he had been turned into a dog by an outside force, and they had instincts that had long ago been lost by humans. He felt those instincts now, and they told him quite clearly that, faced up against Kaiba, he would only manage to lose spectacularly.

Tristan seemed to realize that Joey wasn't going to try and attack again, and his arms loosened from around the golden retriever. Joey sighed and shook himself, his ears flopping wildly.

Kaiba, for his part, kept a firm fistful of the black dog's neck fur, as he released his hold around the canine's chest. The dog - which Joey now realized looked a lot more like a wolf than a dog – had a pouting look on his face that Joey would recognize anywhere.

"Mokuba?!"

The wolf's eyes flashed up, and Joey realized how familiar they were. He seemed to think the same thing, as the next moment, the wolf's eyes widened and the tenseness of prepared attack faded from his muscles. "_Joey_?" He scanned the group of people behind the golden retriever that he had known as a human. "What's going on?"

There was a moment of silence from the group, before Ryou stepped to the head of the group and gazed firmly at Kaiba, something that lit up a spark of surprise in the CEO's face and brought him swiftly to his feet.

"We need your help," Ryou said. He saw the stubborn rise of Kaiba's eyebrow, but didn't give the brunette a chance to reply with some sarcastic retort. "The same thing that has happened to your brother is happening to all of us, and we know who is causing it. However, we can't find her, and we need you for that."

"And if I choose not to help you?" Kaiba drawled.

Ryou gave a nonchalant shrug, glancing to the left with a look of disinterest on his face that caused his yami to smirk. "We can certainly do this on our own," he said. "It may take longer for us, but we will still succeed, of course. I'm afraid that Mokuba will just have to remain a flea-infested wolf for some time longer." He smiled softly. "And then, of course, there's the matter of what you will be turning into in a few hour's time."

Ryou had to commend Kaiba. Despite his shock, he retained an impassive expression. That was more than most people could boast. He could tell, however, that he was not just disturbed by what was going on, but frightened.

"_He's in denial." _Bakura's voice slipped into Ryou's mind with ease.

"_Yes," _Ryou said. _"He has spent his life convincing himself that magic doesn't exist, and up until now, he has been able to keep that lie intact, however loosely. Now, he has had the effects of magic thrown in their face, and he will either have to accept it, or suffer a breakdown." _

"_Do you know what's going to happen?"_

"_No, not yet. He hasn't made his decision. He is still fighting to convince himself, but it will fail. Whichever way it falls, I will see when he decides."_

"_What is he going to turn into?"_

Ryou's internal chuckle echoed through both of their minds. _"I have no idea. I lied." _He heard Bakura snort with laughter. _"He will help us, though, if only because he doesn't fancy getting fleas." _

Bakura went silent, their mental linking fading from a constant thread to a comfortable touch, as though they held one another's hand with their souls. Ryou sighed internally. There was something that he wasn't telling Bakura, of course, but it wasn't really that important, just uncomfortable for Ryou.

Kaiba was afraid of being turned into an animal, not because it would be uncomfortable or even dangerous for him, but because he might not be able to protect Mokuba.

That should have been how Ryou acted toward Amane, but he had failed her in that, and she had known he would.

Ryou sighed, but his thought processes were interrupted as Kaiba spoke. "Fine. I'll help you find this girl, but only because I really hate dogs." He turned swiftly, his coat flaring outward, and started stalking out of the room and down the hall.

Mokuba chased after him, stopping only for a moment to glance back at him. "The computer room is this way," he said, and then dashed after his brother again. "Come on!"

* * *

**Umbrae: **Not a whole lot of action in this, but I needed to bring Kaiba into the picture. I don't have a great deal to say, so we'll just move on to review responses, shall we?

_**WhiteAsukalover: **_You are quite welcome. I hope you enjoyed your New Year's gift. :D

_**YugiYamifangirl: **_Yami was incredibly foolish, but he will eventually come to his senses. Thank goodness for Ryou's good sense. Don't wish too hard on them stopping Sagira, though. Who says she's trying to cause _problems_?

_**Kagimine: **_You're quite welcome, and please don't die on me before you get to finish the fic. I don't want you pining for this in the Afterlife. :P I agree! Tendershipping forever! ^^

_**YamiIcepath: **_I am sorry to have kept you waiting. Being a wolf would be awesome. Fleas, not so much.

_**Celestial Dreamer: **_I hope you enjoyed this one, as well. Keep on reading!

**Umbrae: **Thank you all for reading and for your lovely reviews. Have a lovely New Year, bring it in well and with a smile, and, as always…

_Live long. Live well. Write. Read. Dream. _


	9. Chapter 9

**Umbrae:** Ha! I bet you weren't expecting this!

Neither was I. I'm surprised I managed to finish another chapter.

Next chapter will probably take me a little longer, since I intend to make it longer than the last two chapters have been. :D It's going to have some action in it, too, I think.

I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get more than two reviews for the last chapter, but I'm aware that a lot of people are on vacation, or just enjoying the time to sleep. So, my fault for being unable to wait. For those of you who _are_ on vacation, I hope you enjoy the multiple chapters to read.

Thank for all for reading, please enjoy, and, as always...

_Live long. Live well. Write. _

**

* * *

**

**Light Summons**

**IX**

**

* * *

**

"_So that vision is set in stone, at least."_

"_Only in that it will occur if we do not act to stop it. We are… at a crossroads with that, you could say,"_ Ryou said. He sighed, glancing down at his hands. _"But yes, it is set. We will have to be certain that he is safely with us and away from the columns. I – I don't think I could bear losing any of them, Bakura." _

"_Then we'll just make sure that we don't,"_ he said, wrapping his arms around Ryou. He held his spirit outside of his body so that he could better comfort his light. He hoped that they would somehow be able to fix this all soon. He hated being trapped in the form of a rat, unable to _really_ hold Ryou.

He sighed into the albino's snow white hair. Through their mind link, Bakura had witnessed the vision as Ryou had it. It had come on abruptly, summoned forth, he would assume, by Joey's careless dash down the hall of Kaiba's mansion.

In the vision, something of the same had occurred, only they hadn't been in Kaiba's mansion or anywhere that either Ryou or Bakura recognized. It was a building of stone, clearly ancient, the heavy ceiling held up by columns of three foot thick marble.

Ryou and Bakura had, in the vision, been within the presence of their own bodies, which is how, Ryou explained, he knew that the vision was set in stone. With them had been Yugi, Yami, Tristan, Joey, and Tea. However, only Joey remained in his animal form, the rest of them all somehow back to normal.

Joey barked loudly, excited, and dashed forward through the center of the building. There were cries of his name that echoed around Bakura and Ryou, both off of the stone walls of the building, as well as in the distant future of the vision.

Joey, as he had in the hallway, failed to listen. There was a shuddering movement in the floor, and a loud crack, and the stone pillars began to fall, shoved hard by some great force.

There was a heavy yelp as the pillars collapsed to the ground, and then silence.

And the vision had ended.

The outcome and meaning had been quite clear. Whatever that building was, it spelled Joey's doom if they didn't somehow keep him from running into the center of it. They would have to keep an eye out for such a place, and an eye on their blonde friend.

Bakura didn't say it out loud, but Ryou, of course, knew it. The thief wouldn't be able to stand losing any of them, either, because whether or not he cared to admit it, they were his friends.

* * *

Yugi Moto lay on top of his bedsheets, staring up at the ceiling of his bedroom. At least, they told him that this was his bedroom, but he really couldn't be certain. After all, he couldn't remember anything that would connect this room to him. It seemed strange, really. He was fifteen years old. Why did his room look like it belonged to a ten year old – so full of childish games and toys? It didn't make sense.

A lot of things didn't make sense, though.

Why couldn't he remember anything? Ryou had tried to explain, after Joey and Tristan's many failed attempts, that he had lost his memory after he went into a coma. Yugi could tell that the albino wasn't giving him all the facts, but he wasn't sure if it was because the facts were unbelievable, if he wanted Yugi to remember them for himself, or if they were too horrible to reveal to someone who had just recently lost the memories of said event (along with the memories of _every other_ _event_ in his life).

Yugi felt his eyes beginning to droop, his muscles relaxing as sleep started to overcome him. He let his eyes slip closed, as he continued to think over his friends – friends he had for a long time, but could only remember having for a few hours.

Joey. The blonde boy (Joey had showed him a picture of him and his sister, Serenity, so Yugi could see what he looked like before he was turned into a golden retriever) was hyperactive, very vocal, and spoke with an unmistakable Brooklyn accent that Yugi found incredibly enjoyable to hear. Joey seemed to have a really good sense of humor, even when the times seemed tough, as it no doubt was for him and the rest, Yugi unable to remember any of them.

Tristan was similar to Joey in some aspects, but the opposite in others. It was obvious why the two were best friends. Like Joey, Tristan had a great sense of humor, though he seemed to have more moments of seriousness than Joey did. Yugi wasn't sure if the boy was more responsible, or if there was more to Joey than was readily apparent. Tristan was calmer than Joey, not as ready to jump all over someone out of excitement, though that could have been just the instincts of a dog. Where Joey was a man of action, Tristan seemed a man of thought, and in that the two balanced each other out.

Ryou… was an enigma. Yugi wasn't offered up a lot of information on the albino; everyone had seemed much more interested in reminding Yugi of who he was and who they were in relation to him. Ryou had been very quiet, though, choosing to sit back and listen to the others, and watch. Yugi got the feeling, somehow, that the boy did a great deal of watching. There was a level of intelligence in his eyes that went unmatched, even in the eyes of both Atemu and Bakura, who held a great deal of their own.

Bakura eyes were harsh, cold. They held not only experience and knowledge within their depths, but what seemed an abyss of pain and sorrow – something that he tried but failed to hide. Yugi wondered why no one else mentioned it, because surely he couldn't be the only one to see it.

Atemu was even more confusing than Ryou, though for a different reason. The boy turned lion held intelligence in his eyes, wisdom and knowledge, and emotions that ran far deeper than Yugi could see. He seemed to cover them up, however, with a veil of boredom, as though nothing that anyone said could possibly cause him any sort of harm. Yugi didn't really believe it, though, because he could _feel_ something.

He didn't know what it was. It was… indefinable. He knew it was important, however, and it aggravated him that he couldn't remember.

He could remember Atemu's words to him – that the two of them hated each other, and he was only there because he was bored. Not because he cared about Yugi's well-being.

But that didn't make much sense, did it? If he didn't care, why didn't he just leave?

The thought of Atemu leaving, for some reason, caused pain to well up in Yugi's chest, and he opened his eyes to find that there were tears running down his cheeks. He wiped the tears away with a hand, sniffling.

"Why am I crying?" he whispered. He didn't _know_ Atemu – not really. He couldn't remember anything about the boy, so why should it bother him, whether or not he left?

Sniffling, Yugi sat up on his bed and swung his legs over the side. He sat that way for a long time, staring at his bare feet, thinking of nothing in particular, when his eyes settled on an object sitting on his desk.

Ryou said that it was called the Millennium Puzzle and had once been broken into many pieces. Yugi had finished it, and had been granted a wish on its completed form, as the legend had gone.

_What did I wish for?_

He had asked Ryou, but the albino had simply stared off behind him with those too-intelligent eyes, a great sadness seeming to burn within them, and a knowledge that Yugi couldn't interpret or explain.

"_You'll have to remember that on your own, Yugi," Ryou said, his eyes meeting Yugi's with a steady glance. "I, nor anyone else, will tell you. It won't have any meaning if we do." _

He hadn't waited for a reply, but had simply turned and walked away, leaving Yugi standing there, staring after him dumbly.

Standing at his desk, Yugi ran his fingers over the golden puzzle. It was important – one of the most important things that he couldn't remember, he knew that. It was something that meant a lot to him; what it had given him and what it meant were irreplaceable.

Why could he remember these things, but not the details? Why couldn't he remember what was _really_ important?

Yugi carried the puzzle with him back to the bed, and crawled under the covers. He curled up, clutching the Millennium Puzzle against his chest. Maybe if he held it tight while he slept, he could remember.

If it granted wishes…

_I wish… I wish I could remember what was important… please…_

* * *

"Dis sucks."

Tristan groaned, but it was Tea that spoke. "Joey, that's the fourth time you've said that in the last five minutes."

"Well, it does!"

"We know," Tristan said, "but there's nothing we can do about it." Tristan sighed, rubbing his face. "I wish I had my guitar."

"We don't need ta hear any of dat crap music ya play," Joey growled. Then he blinked in surprise at his own words.

"Dude, what is your _problem_?" Tristan asked sharply, giving the golden retriever that used to be his best human friend a look of disbelief.

"I don't know," Joey said, ducking down. His voice came out in a pitiful whimper.

"I think I know," Ryou said, calling the others' attention to him. His conversation with Bakura was finished for the moment, and the thief had allowed his manifested soul to return to his animal formed body, for the moment.

Ryou stood and walked over to their group, regarding Joey with a thoughtful expression. "You and Mokuba got into a fight, I believe, for the same reason that you've been so rude to both Tristan and I."

Joey whimpered in distress, covering his muzzle with a paw and making Ryou chuckle. "You can't _help_ it, Joey – it's instinct."

"Instinct?" Joey asked, sitting up and cocking his head to the side.

"You've been turned into a dog, Joey, and dogs live by the rule of dominance. I've been turned into a fox, and though I can control my power, I'm still a canine. You were originally so terse with me because of my… species. You're trying to be dominant, as you would in a pack, and it came out vocally-"

"Because everything else with you does," Tristan finished with a grin.

"So… I'm not bein' a jerk?"

"Oh, you're being a jerk, but you can't help it," Mokuba said, trotting into the room and sitting down in front of them all. "I did the same thing. Sorry I attacked you, Joey."

"It's all right, kid. So, how's it goin' wit' Kaiba?"

Mokuba grinned, which was a rather frightening sight, his lips pulled back to reveal a mouth of dangerous fangs. His tail was wagging, though, and his slate grey eyes gleamed. "He's found something. That's why I came to get you." It was strange, seeing a wolf smirk. "You guys need to take a look at this."

* * *

"They've found something. Interesting."

"You should have more faith in them."

"I have faith only in their ability to destroy."

"Three thousand years has made you harsh, my love. They will help us."

"This I will have to see, though you are so sure that I will. I will be patient, for a little while longer, Sagira. You do realize, however, that there isn't much time."

"Yes, I know. The end is nigh. Be swift, my brother."

* * *

Kaiba was sitting at a large computer mainframe when the group walked into the room, Mokuba trotting in the front of the party, leading the way. Tristan had Bakura sitting on his shoulder once again, the white ferret glaring intensely. Joey and Tea walked side by side, an odd sight for a golden retriever and a housecat. Ryou followed the group, walking beside Yami, who had remained silent since their discussion in the hall back at Ryou's house.

"_Yami." _The pharaoh started only slightly, his tail whipping back and forth, before he realized that Ryou was using his natural telepathy to speak to him. _"It'll be okay, Yami. We'll fix this."_

Yami didn't reply to Ryou, but the albino knew the pharaoh's thoughts.

He didn't think it could be fixed.

Ryou suppressed a sigh and didn't speak anymore to Yami. The pharaoh wouldn't listen to what he had to say, regardless of its meaning or purpose, so it would be better for Ryou to wait until he was more responsive. He dearly hoped that was soon, though. If Yami lost complete faith in them being able to figure out what was going on, stop it, and restore Yugi's memory, then it was entirely possible that they wouldn't be able to do any of it. It had always been Yugi and Yami's faith that had kept them all going in the past. With Yugi at a loss as to who _he_ was, they needed Yami to be strong. But the pharaoh was slipping, and it was becoming quite clear to Ryou why that was.

_He needs Yugi, in order to be strong – he needs a reason. He doesn't seem to understand that Yugi is the same way. _Ryou sighed deeply. _I wonder if Sagira comprehends what she has done, by erasing Yugi's memories, or if she cares. _He gazed down at his hand, thinking of how easy it was for him to change the pale flesh into white fur. _Why is she doing this… and why won't she let me see? _

He reached out with his mind, seeking the presence of the strange girl he knew to be Yami's sister, but there was a block around him. He could reach out for some distance, but then he hit a wall. It had been happening more often of late, and was part of the reason that his visions were so uncertain. Someone was leading him, and caging his powers.

He couldn't see what was happening, but he could still _feel_, and he could tell that there was something that he was missing – something that was a key piece of the story, that he needed to know to understand everything.

He wondered what it was, where it fit in, and what it changed about everything he thought he knew.

After all, he was psychic, not omniscient.

**Umbrae: **I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter. Ladies and gentlemen, review responses:

_**YugiYamiFangirl: **_We'll see. He may not be able to, without seriously messing up his brain. :P

_**WhiteAsukaLover: **_I tried to make sure I mentioned in the chapter, but to be thorough: Joey has been turned into a golden retriever, Bakura had been turned into a ferret, Yami has been turned into a lion, Tea has been turned into a cat, Mokuba has been turned into a black wolf, and Ryou can control his transformation into a fox. I hope that helps, and I'm glad you liked the chapter!

**Umbrae: **Thanks for reading, everyone! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Have a wonderful weekend and, as always...

_Live long. Live well. Write. Read. Dream. _


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note: **Hello, everyone!

For starters, I will take a moment to apologize for both my tardiness in posting this chapter, as well as the obvious fact that I will, unfortunately, _not_ have this fic done by the end of January. I can give you no excuse other than that school decided to take a huge bite out of my life and my good humor, as I now have homework piling on top of me and am forced to suffer through two strenuous classes where I am learning _nothing_. And yet, they have loads of busy-work for us. On top of that, I just had to get my car fixed, and now I need to find some way to pay for it.

However, the good news is that I predict there being four chapters left to this fic, and I wrote a timeline earlier today. ^^ We don't have much longer to go, and there is much to do!

In any case, I will try to update more quickly for the next chapter. Now that I've fixed the scheduling problems I had and am growing as accustomed to these classes as possible, that may be a bit easier.

I hope you all enjoy the fic, please remember to review and, as always…

_Live long. Live well. Write. _

_

* * *

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**Light Summons  
**

**X**

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* * *

**

"Would you care to tell me why you bothered to erase the boy's memories if they're just going to start return to him?"

"Have a little faith in me, my love. Yes, his memories are returning to him, but not all at once. Did you hear what he wished for on his Puzzle? He wished to remember what was important, and so I shall help him with that."

"What's… important."

"Yes. You see, my love, the dear child has had a harsh and painful life, and the incidents in such have caused him agony of three sorts, and have also give him reason to doubt himself. If I take away these causes, then there shall be no effect."

"He won't doubt himself."

"Precisely. You see, dearest, the boy is far more powerful than anyone realizes – even himself. In fact, I don't believe that the psychic is even fully aware of the boy's power, because in his darkness, he remains invisible to the powers of the one who is, in his own gift, all light. They, who call each other brother but are not brothers, balance each other and cancel each other out, in a way that links their partners together – my brother and the tomb robber. It is their greatest strength, but one which they have failed to harness to its full potential.

"Having taken away the pain of his memories and erased the reasons that he believed himself to be weak, I have hopes that the child will use these powers granted to him by fate and darkness. With his strength and the strength that will rise in the others, I hope that they might save this world from the horrible fate that awaits them, otherwise."

"You actually believe that they have a chance to succeed."

"I do, my love - a belief and hope that I pray will not prove false. They, who have faced so much before, are our last hope – the world's last hope. But I have faith in them, my love, that they can succeed and, indeed, that they would fight."

"Why do you believe so strongly that they _will_ fight? They could easily turn away from us."

"From us, love, yes. They could turn away, though I do not believe that they would. However, it is not our plight that will drive them. My powers have been weakening and though I have done my best, I have failed to change them all in time. The end comes and there are three that I have failed to protect. My limited sight has shown me that one will fall by the living death that has stolen the other humans, but for the other two… I cannot see them, and I fear they will be lost."

"Do you know who it is who can still be saved?"

"You sound worried, my love. This surprises me.

"… yes. I looked for other alternatives, but there are none. The next that I would have turned will be taken by the living death, but if the others can defeat she who seeks vengeance upon my brother as she did upon us, then they may still save him. As for the others… they are lost to my sight. I fear my attempts to give them more strength were futile. I hope only that their loss will not be enough to steal from them their willingness to fight for the last."

"He falls soon, then?"

"Soon, indeed, my love, and his fall, and the imminent loss of the others, will cause too much pain for my heart to bear. Please… though I know you do not understand, hold me as the sun sets again, my love, and let me weep."

* * *

Yugi opened his eyes slowly, blinking away the darkness that clung desperately to his eyes, trying to drag him back into unconsciousness. He looked around tiredly, trying to seek out something familiar, but he couldn't find anything that held some link to him, and therefore some comfort.

"Yugi."

Yugi's head jerked up and he turned swiftly, only then realizing that he was standing, and his bed was nowhere in sight.

A girl was standing behind him, shorter than he was, with pitch black hair that fell straight to her shoulders. She had an innocent face, and a pair of bright green eyes that seemed to smile up at him with force unmatched, joined in harmony by her lips, which curled softly upward. She wore a simple pink dress that was very cute on a girl her age. She was barefoot.

"Hello, Yugi," she said sweetly.

"Hello," Yugi said, and he couldn't help but smile back. It faded a little, a moment later. "I'm sorry but… do I know you? I don't really remember-"

The girl giggled, bringing her hands to her mouth as she laughed merrily. She blinked up at him innocently when her mirth let her breathe, and she dropped her hands delicately to her sides as she danced forward on small, gentle feet. "I know _you_, Yugi," she said, reaching up and poking his nose, "better than you know me." She took her index finger and pushed it against her own tiny nose, going cross-eyed to focus on it in delight. Her smile was so sweet and tender that Yugi felt completely at ease in her presence. She dropped her hand to the side and focused on him again. "Even if you had never had your memories taken from you, you would still not remember me as more than a name."

_A name. _"What _is _your name?"

The little girl smiled as she replied in her sweet voice, "Amane."

A flash of something – a memory – split through Yugi's mind. A voice he knew but did not know whispered into his mind, a memory that seemed so recent, and yet so far away.

_"This Ryou that you call "brother," my little light… he has fallen."_

Yugi felt a chill sweep through him, making him shiver. He wrapped his arms around himself, bowing his head. _Ryou…_ He called Ryou his "brother?" Yes… yes, that sounded right.

"Your memory will come back as time goes on, Yugi. Sagira had no intention of keeping it from you for long. She has her reasons for what she does, however."

"She's the one who's turning everyone into animals," Yugi said, looking at the little girl – Amane – for clarification.

"Yes," Amane said quietly, nodding. "She has her reasons for this, too, and that's why I'm here." She held out her small hand, and Yugi took it gently in his own. "I will show you, Yugi, what your friends fail to see."

She turned and glided off, pulling Yugi gently but firmly behind her. She glided – no, _flew_ – through the shadows, a grey fog curling around them as they passed grey, half-faded places that he knew but did not recognize.

They finally stopped, the world materializing before them. A street appeared, with people walking down the sidewalk past shops and cars. Yugi saw a Chinese restaurant, a pet shop, and a cell phone store clearly, filled with people. Other people drove through the street. Yugi looked around, but could see nothing out of place. He glanced at Amane in confusion.

"This is Domino City as it should be," Amane said, still staring out at the scene. "But this is not how it is."

The scene rippled like disturbed water, and changed.

Cars were scattered in the streets haphazardly, doors left open. People milled about, groaning, wandering aimlessly, their steps neither purposeful nor sure. They did not speak to one another, they didn't seem to care about the shops. There wasn't anyone even in the shops anymore. The chef from the Chinese restaurant was wandering around outside, staring stupidly at the sky, and the cashier at the cellular store was gnawing on a cell phone. Only the animals in the pet store seemed unaffected. They continued sleeping, eating their food, or running on their hamster wheels, completely disregarding the chaos around them.

"What's happened to the people?" Yugi whispered, staring out at them.

Amane shrugged. "They've been turned into zombies. Not the kind that tries to eat you, and they're not _dead_, but they aren't anything but mindless drones now. Their intelligence has been removed and they're left to wander aimlessly around." She looked at Yugi. "Did you see the one _right_ thing here?" she asked.

Yugi looked back at the scene, studying it, trying to find something that was okay amidst the chaos. He blinked in surprise. "The animals…"

Amane nodded. "She can't touch the animals, only the humans. They're protected."

Yugi stared at Amane. "Who's _she_?" he asked, but Amane only smiled in return and began to fade away. "Amane!"

"You'll have to find that out on your own, Yugi. I can't tell you everything. That's not how the game works…"

Yugi shut his eyes tight, and when he opened them, he was in his bedroom, under the covers, clutching the Millennium Puzzle tightly to his chest and trying desperately to remember who Amane was.

* * *

"So this Sagira is the headmistress of a school?" Tristan asked. "Isn't she a little young?"

The lot of them were standing in Kaiba's massive computer room. Tristan stood up at the front with Bakura sitting on his shoulder. Yami, who was swiftly becoming disinterested in everything, sat in the far back of the room and would have been alone, except that Ryou leaned against the wall, not needing to look at the screen with Bakura studying it, and Tea wandered in a figure eight pattern between and around his legs.

Kaiba was leaning back in his computer chair, arms crossed, clearly bored and annoyed by the situation. Completely disregarding his brother's body language, Mokuba had his paws up on the keyboard, his nose practically pressed to the screen, as Joey sat beside him, staring up curiously.

"It says that it is tradition in her family that each first born daughter is named Larien Sagira, and that they take over the running of the school. There are pictures of the former headmistresses, but look!" He shifted his paw and ignored, or perhaps didn't notice, his brother wince as his sharp claws scraped the mouse and made the page scroll down. "They all look the same!"

Indeed they did. There was a collective mass of photographs layered on the page – nine columns and ten rows on each page and five pages to look through. As they studied the pictures on the first page, however, it became clear that there was something going on. The clothes were different, as were the hairstyles, but the face was always the same.

"What's dat around'er neck?" Joey asked, standing. He moved to put his paws up on the keyboard like Mokuba to get a better look, but a sharp jab to his sides sent him scampered to the left, yelping in surprise.

"Paws off, mutt. I don't need you scratching my computer."

Joey danced between growling and whimpering, his ears flattened against his head, but his body lowered to the ground in shame. In the end, it looked like his anger couldn't take it and left, causing Joey to whimper and lower his head.

Kaiba smirked, and then started when Tristan abruptly grabbed the collar of his shirt and yanked him upwards. "What do you think you're doing, Kaiba?" Tristan asked angrily. "Don't you go kicking my pal again."

There was a collective number of responses to this; a growling bark from Mokuba, a hiss from Tea and Bakura, and an explosion.

It was the explosion that kept Kaiba and Tristan from beating each other up. It rocked the entire building, sending those with only two legs crashing to the ground, and making those with four hunker down low in an attempt to keep their equilibrium.

"What da hell was dat?!" Joey barked when the shaking had stopped. The computer's screen had flickered into submission, followed by the lights, but the backup lights swiftly came on as the generator started, and everyone got quickly to their feet.

"You weren't expecting guests, were you, Seto?"

Kaiba turned sharp eyes to Ryou. "I don't invite people over so they can try to kill me."

"No, it's the other way around, isn't it?"

Kaiba looked at Tea, but Mokuba looked away, clearly bothered. Ryou, for his part, merely sighed. This was becoming too much.

"Shall we go see what caused that explosion?" he offered, as he pushed himself off of the wall and strode quickly from the room. Bakura leapt from Tristan's shoulder and scampered after him, Mokuba following with his tail dropped low between his legs.

The others didn't say anything to regards to one another, but stood staring for a moment, before following behind. Yami was the last to leave the room and did so slowly, his gait slow and disinterested. He had hurt Yugi and Yugi had forgotten him. Why should he care about anything?

* * *

Yugi got dressed quickly, pulling on a pair of black pants and buckling them, before slipping a black, sleeveless shirt over his head. He turned to the full-length mirror in the bedroom – his bedroom – as he ran a brush through his untamed hair. No matter what he tried, it still chose to stick up all over the place.

He put the brush down and stepped closer to the mirror. Tilting his chin up, he looked at the thin scar on his neck. What was that from?

Well, of course, he didn't remember.

He ran his fingers over the white scar, pondering it, but nothing came to his memory – not a voice or a feeling or anything.

_Maybe that's a good thing,_ a part of his mind whispered. He sighed. Although he agreed, he still wished that he could remember. _You asked the Millennium Puzzle to help you remember what was important. Maybe it's just not important._

Right, the Millennium Puzzle. Yugi turned to see it resting on the bed where he had left it, glinting in the light from the window. It was such a beautiful, mysterious thing, and Yugi was drawn to it without really knowing why.

"What did I wish for, before?" he whispered.

_Maybe that's not important, either._

No, that was important. He knew, somehow, that his initial wish upon the Puzzle had been one of the most important in his life, but he couldn't remember what it was.

"It must have been something grand," Yugi said, as he picked up the Puzzle and stared at the eye on its center. "If it took me eight years to finish you and I spent all that time, I must have wanted to wish for something great."

But what could be so great? He already had everything that he could have asked for, except for his memory, but he'd had that before. He had his grandpa, who had made him dinner and talked with him for hours before he fell asleep, and his health, and his friends. He didn't _need_ anything else.

_I wish… I wish for…_

He concentrated hard, but nothing came to him, and he sighed. "Soon, maybe. I'd like to know."

He stood up again and opened his top desk drawer, pulling out a black leather dog collar, fitting it around his neck and buckling it, before pulling a pair of socks out of his bureau drawer and quickly putting on his sneakers.

He bent down and pulled a box out from under his bed, opening it to reveal an array of jewelry and other random trinkets. He grabbed a golden band and slipped it up his arm, fitting it snugly, covering up a couple of the scars on his arms. He had seen the scars all across his body the first time he'd looked in the mirror and he had wondered where they came from, but he couldn't remember anything about them, just as he couldn't recall anything about the one on his neck, so they must not have been important enough to remember.

Grabbing his blue jacket from the back of his desk chair, he quickly put it on and pulled a thick metal chain out of the box. He fiddled with the lock, and then fixed the Millennium Puzzle onto the chain.

_"This way, no one will be able to steal it again!"_

Yugi frozen in his actions, holding the Millennium Puzzle in his hands by the chain, about to put it on. He stared down at the golden pyramid.

"Someone tried to steal you from me?"

Laughter, heat, fire, darkness… they flashed at him from nowhere and from everywhere, enveloping him for a moment, before abruptly disappearing back into his memory. Yugi stared after them, longing and confused. Something… something… had been missing when the Millennium Puzzle had been stolen.

Yami. Atemu.

He had two names, and Yugi remembered that now. Atemu… Yami had been missing when the Puzzle had been taken from him. That's right, the two were connected, somehow. Didn't Yami have a Puzzle of his own?

_There's only one._

One Puzzle, but two halves. A dark and a light.

Yugi stared at the Millennium Puzzle in his hands. "Yami… I don't hate you. I know I don't." He frowned in confusion. "So why did you lie to me?" He raised the Puzzle to stare into its eye. "And if one of us is light and one is dark… who is who?" He stared for a moment longer, until he was sure that the Puzzle wouldn't answer, and then he slipped the chain over his neck.

The Millennium Puzzle came to rest where it belonged against his chest at the same time that there was a muffled sound on the ground floor of the game shop, and the house exploded into a ball of splinters and fire around him.

* * *

Standing on the rooftop of a nearby building, Princess Sagira, sister of the Pharaoh Atemu, watched as the Moto Game Shop erupted into a ball of fire with the force of the bomb placed within it. The jackal at her side glanced up to see a tear roll down her cheek, only to have it wiped away by the billowing wind.

"I have failed him, my love," she whispered, as the wind carried the smoke of death through the air. "I have failed him, and now I fear that all is lost."

* * *

**Author's Note: **Now, have faith, dear reader. That is all I have to say on the matter.

**_Yugiyamifangirl: _**Yami _does_ need to tell Yugi the truth, but he's being all _noble_ and _stupid_. ^^ This may have helped to explain a little, or it may have confused you more!

**_WhiteAsukalover: _**Sagira's discussion with Jackal may have helped to clear up a few otherwise-untouched questions about Yugi's memory loss.

**_Mystie: _**I'm very glad; thank you.

**_Leo112: _**I am not telling. Nyah! As you may have figured from the content of this chapter, Sagira will not being turning any of the remaining three into animals. I did, however, have a list of who would become what animal at one point in time, and had Tristan been turned, he would have become a monkey. ^^ I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

**_Red-Eyes-Black-Dragon101: _**I hope this helps to satiate you for the time being. Thanks for all of the lovely reviews!

**Author's Note: **Thank you all for reading and reviewing! As an additional note, the jackal with Sagira is named Jackal – yes, I'm serious. ^^ His part will become clear soon, I promise. I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter and will grace me with more lovely reviews as I work on the next.

As always…

_Live long. Live well. Write. Read. Dream._


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note: **Hi, everybody, and happy February!

Wonderful news before I start the chapter: On Monday, Necrology Shorts, an online horror magazine, published my short story! ^^ I am so very happy!

Okay, now onto the chapter!

_Live long. Live well. Write. _

_

* * *

_

**Light Summons**

**XI**

**

* * *

**

To say that the room was in disarray would be a horrible understatement. The furniture had been _shredded_, the piles of rubble left over smoking, some with flames yet licking at them. The floor had a great black ring that surrounded the mess, dark inward, destruction outward.

"Is anyone else worried about how this looks like a bomb?"

"It _was_ a bomb," Ryou said, stepping forward, staring at the smoking rubble. "I don't understand why I couldn't see it when it was so close." He sounded worried, and that caused the others more distress than was warranted. "She is blocking my sight," Ryou explained, turning to them. "I am swiftly becoming as useless to you as I was before I accepted my gifts for what they are."

"Ya ain't useless, Ryou," Joey said, his lips pulled back in a feral smile that showed his certainty. "Don' go sayin' shit like dat."

"He's right," Tea said, her ears twitching as her tail curled elegantly around her paws. "Psychic powers or not, Ryou, you're a great help, and a great friend."

Seto rolled his eyes heavily. "Enough with the cheesy friendship speeches!" He ignored Tea's potent glare. "Who the hell is after you and why are they planting bombs in my _house_?"

"It's Sagira. She's the one that's been turning us into animals to make us weak…"

Yami stopped listening. In truth, he hadn't been paying a whole lot of attention to begin with, but it didn't seem important anymore. Who cared what was happening? Who cared that he was a lion? Yugi didn't remember him, and if things went like he had hoped, Yugi would hate him, as well.

That way, he would never be able to hurt the boy again.

_Someone hurt him before you. _

Of course, he couldn't forget that. All things pointed to Yugi's father having been the man who nearly killed him, twice, before Yugi tried to kill himself. Sitting with his tail curled around massive paws, Yami sighed. Why did all of the horrible things happen to such wonderful people? Or was it that, somehow, despite the horrible things, these people turned out all right?

Yami's ears twitched and he tilted his head to the side thoughtfully. That was a way to look at it. Yugi had scars all over his body from being practically tortured by his own father. His mother had been murdered in front of his eyes, and he had been forced to live with his grandfather who, while loved dearly, was separated from him by two generation gaps.

But Yugi had turned out okay.

Better than okay; he had the purest heart that Yami had ever known.

Yami had thought that was a bad thing at times. Yugi tried to see the good in everyone and, because of it, he often got hurt. But he never loathed that he got hurt, because sometimes, he came through and made the other person see that they were good, or that they could be friends, or that life wasn't so horrible, after all. Yugi strived to be friends with everyone, but maybe it was to _have_ so many friends.

_I wish for friends who would never betray me. _

That's what he had wished on the Puzzle. They were the first words that Yami had heard in over three thousand years. How could he have forgotten them?

If, despite everything that Yugi had been through, he had turned out to be such a kind-hearted, loving boy… if he worked so hard to make friends with people of all sorts, to bring them together, to have a family of people who had no relation to him, how… how could Yami _dare_ to turn his back on Yugi? How could he try to convince the boy that they hated each other? – it wasn't right.

So Yugi had lost his memory – Yami had been without his for years. Yugi never left his side and never stopped trying to help him remember, even knowing the cost…

And then Yami had stayed, for Yugi, though he hadn't admitted how deep his feelings went at the time. They didn't come to that realization until the events involving the rejoining of Ryou's soul.

Still, he had stay for Yugi. Why was he leaving him _now_?

Yami stood up suddenly and, without only a moment's hesitation to think, turned and ran from the room. The butler, walking through the threshold, screamed and fainted at the sight of the lion running toward him. Yami didn't stop, but raced from the room, his heavy muscles making his stride long and swift.

Behind him, Joey barked suddenly and moved to follow, but Ryou placed a hand on his back. "Leave him go, Joey. This is something he must do on his own." He stood as Joey looked back at him worriedly. "He'll be back," Ryou assured him, smiling softly. Yami _would_ be back, and he would, Ryou had hopes, be better.

* * *

"Friend, wake up. Wake up, little light."

Yugi recognized the voice speaking to him, as he came back into consciousness. He opened his eyes slowly, to be greeted by the familiar, welcome darkness, and two glowing green eyes.

"Mahaad," Yugi whispered, and pulled himself into as much of a standing position as one can make while hovering. He looked around – nothing but shadows. "Am I dead?"

"… no."

The hesitation caused Yugi to turn his gaze back to the Dark Magician, and he saw the uncomfortable look on the wizard's face. "Mahaad?"

"What do you remember, Yugi?" Yugi blinked. "Do you remember having no memory?"

"No… memory?" Yugi concentrated, thinking, and then blinked in surprise. He had forgotten… everything. "How is that possible?"

"Sagira took your memory from you, little light, in hopes that forgetting your past would give you the strength that you hid from yourself because of all that occurred. She made a mistake, however, in thinking that should could play an omniscient role, when she has, in fact, been missing the strength that you already exhibit."

"What do you mean?"

"You are far from weak, little light; you have a strength that burns brightly in you. Your light, which allows you to care so deeply for others, which leaves you to suffer physically for those you love, but to thrive spiritually. Your power is your light, Yugi. Sagira, much like you, I believe, thought that your power lay in the darkness that you used, but that is _my _power, Yugi. If you open yourself to you own true power, your strength will far surpass mine."

Mahaad put a hand on his shoulder. "If you open yourself up to this power, Yugi, there is no doubt that you can beat this danger. But you have to go swiftly – there is too much at stake for you remain any longer. You cannot go back as you were, however, but I will help you with that. It is all that I will be able to do." He turned Yugi to look into his eyes. "Your friends are in great danger, Yugi – you must help them. My Pharaoh is waiting for you. Now go!"

* * *

Tristan had taken a few steps away from the group, closer to the rubble, and was trying to see where the smoke was coming from. He couldn't tell if there was a fire beneath the pile, but it seemed likely.

He turned his head around to look at the butler on the stairs, who was recovering from his second faint of the evening. "Hey, buddy, can we get a fire extinguisher over here?"

There was a moment of peace, during which the butler straightened and coughed, regaining composure, before placing a hand on his chest as though to perform a bow of servitude.

He made it so far as to close his eyes, before the pile of smoking rubble exploded outward.

Like a massive anthill, the opening that had formed at the top of the rubble hill let spill a barrage of creatures. They were made of shadows – pure darkness turned solid, each with at least one pair of glowing crimson eyes, and a few with more. They flew, crawled, ran, slithered, and oozed out of the opening until the room was full of them. Before anyone could react, they had the group of them surrounded and were quickly moving toward the walls, to block the door.

A choking sound, like a hysterical sob, erupted from the butler as he walked backward up the stairs. He looked at the group of children and animals, shaking his head back and forth, his face pale. He looked about a second away from fainting for the third time.

"I can't take it anymore," he whispered, panicked. "I quit!" He gave a hysterical laugh as he turned and raced up the stairs. "I quit! I quit!" His voice continued as a mantra, until the sound had faded from their hearing.

Swallowing, the ground backed inward on instinct, forming a tight group.

"Ryou, any ideas?" Tea asked, her tail fluffed out and her fur standing on end as she stared around like the others.

Ryou glanced around, as well, looking worried. "I… I think…"

"We need ta know for sure, pal," Joey said, glancing back at the albino. "I know ya can do it, Ryou."

Ryou swallowed thickly. _"Bakura…"_

"_I am here, Ryou, and the mutt's right – this is your power, and you're strong enough."_

Ryou drew a deep breath and gave a sharp nod. "Remember a few weeks ago?" he asked, though the question was more rhetoric than anything. How could any of them have forgotten? – only Mokuba and Kaiba were at a loss as to what he was talking about, while the others offered nods complete with clenched teeth and disturbed glances. "Our cards should work here, as well."

The stares he got in response made him smirk, but it was Joey who spoke. "How da hell's dat s'posed to help d'ose of us wit'out our decks!?"

"You got fangs, don'cha?" Mokuba asked, hunkering down and snarling. "Let's show these jerks who's top dog around here!" Kaiba yelled or his brother to stop, but Mokuba dashed forward without listening. He leapt at the shadow nearest him, mouth wide, snarling as viciously as any true dog could ever have managed.

He sailed right through the shadow and with a yelp, skidded with he hit the floor beyond it.

The shadows all uttered a sound like a chittering laugh, the room echoing with the eerie call. One of the shadows seemed to move apart from the others, and soon a hissing, whispery voice sounded in the large room, echoing darkly.

"Foolish little human, you cannot touch us. We are shadows, and shadows can only be touched by light. You cannot touch us." It hissed sharply, causing Mokuba to flinch away in fear and the other shadows to laugh again. "But we shadows crawl all over _you_."

It seemed that was something akin to a battle cry, or a call to arms, for the moment after the words were spoken, the shadows attacked.

* * *

Funny, how something that would seem to have no connection to you can make you feel such dread in your heart as you become aware of something that has gone horribly wrong.

For Yami, it was the siren of a fire truck, wailing in its high-pitched glory as it flew down the street. Traveling through dark alleys to avoid being spotted – a massive lion in the street – he stopped to watch it pass, and it sent such a chill through his heart that he instantly knew, without a doubt, that something wasn't right.

And then he reached the Game Shop.

Fire trucks surrounded it, men holding hoses that sprayed copious amounts of water trying to put out the flames. An ambulance sat on the side, the rear doors open. Two paramedics were rushing from the rubble, a stretcher between them, carrying a small body. The spiky, tri-colored hair was unmistakable.

"Yugi…" he whispered, his ears flattening on his skull. It couldn't be… He was supposed to be all right! He was supposed to be safe!

"-all right?"

Yami's ears twitched and he dared to edge closer, trying to hear, his eyes never leaving the sight of his _aibou_ as they pushed the stretcher into the back of the ambulance.

"-miracle he somehow missed being struck by debris, much less taking the blast from the explosion. He must have been somewhere with enough structural shielding to keep him from being hurt to badly."

An explosion. It was just like there had been at Kaiba's. What was going on?

"Hit his head, though. Looks like he's out."

"I'd say he's in a coma, but let's get him to the hospital. Have the docs look at him."

Yami sank down in the alley, lying on his stomach. He watched as the ambulance drove off, sirens flashing, and then the police that had arrived, and then the firemen, the sun sinking down into the horizon all the while. He lay staring into the darkness, somehow seeing just as well as if it were day, the smoke still trailing out of the crumbled mass that was once the Game Shop.

What was he going to do? He couldn't go to the hospital as a lion. He couldn't go be with Yugi. He'd have to go back to Kaiba's and tell Ryou – he or Tristan could go to the hospital and stay with Yugi, and protect him from whatever was after them this time.

Yami stood reluctantly. He didn't want to admit it, but he had stayed out of some form of denial, hoping that if he waited long enough, Yugi would appear, perfectly well.

But he knew better.

_I should have been here._

Yami stared from the shadows of the alley, waiting for something that wouldn't… couldn't come.

With a sigh, he turned away from the crumbled house. And that's when he heard the footsteps.

He never would have caught the sound of them as a human – his ears were far too dull. As a lion, however, his senses were keen, and the trickling of dirt over wood caught his ears. He stopped, one foreleg raised in the air, turning his head back to glance behind him.

Pale yellow fur and a golden mane, the creature's eyes were as purple as anything he had ever seen, but only one pair of eyes had ever held that color before.

He turned swiftly, facing back toward the house, as he regarded the lithe lion with wondering eyes. "Yugi?"

The light-colored lion sniffed at the air, his tail twitching back and forth, ears flicking. He cocked his head to the side and scanned the area with his eyes. This was all so strange…

"Yugi?"

The lion froze, and then his head turned to the alley. He blinked.

"_Yami?" _

Yami went rigid with surprise at Yugi's voice, speaking into his mind.

* * *

"Dark Magician Girl!"

Tea watched in horror as three of the shadows leapt upon the witch and dragged her to the ground. She exploded when the one opened its mouth and sank great black fangs into her flesh.

Tea, who knew that when bad things happened in Domino, it usually involved her and her friends, had borrowed her cat's collar and stuffed her duel deck between it and her fur. Now, she slapped another card down on the floor with her paws.

Dark Witch came flying forward to attack the shadows, but she was quickly taken down, as well.

All around them, shadows leapt, snarling silently, their mouths wide open and emitting darkness, as they tore down their defending duel monsters, one by one.

In truth, the only one of them who could on occasion match Yami and Yugi at Duel Monsters was Kaiba, and he couldn't call his monsters out.

"This is insane!" Kaiba yelled. He kept trying to tell himself that there had to be holographic projectors somewhere, but there was no way that they could have placed them in his house without his knowing. But this couldn't possibly be real…

"Seto, why can't you call out Blue Eyes White Dragon?" Mokuba was staring at him with worry in his eyes at what was happening. He, of course, had no doubts.

"Because this is a trick!" he snarled.

"He doesn't _believe_," Ryou corrected, pulling out another card. "You don't believe in them, so they don't believe in you."

Kaiba looked at him with a glare. "I don't need to hear any of your _heart of the cards_ crap. I've had enough of your cheesy kids show lines."

Ryou turned away, snorting softly with a muttered, "You have no idea."

"Kaiba, how can ya think dis is fake? De're at ya freakin' house!"

"Shut up, mutt!" Kaiba snarled harshly at Joey. The golden retriever was standing near Mokuba and Kaiba didn't like being so close to him. It bothered him that the boy – dog – was right… somehow. This… but it couldn't be real.

Ryou pulled another card out of his deck; Change of Heart. "This could certainly help," he mumbled.

"Now, we can't have that, can we?"

Ryou let out a yell as a shadow appeared beside him and grabbed his wrist. The touch of her hand burned his scream and smoke coiled from around their mingled appendages. He dropped the card and jerked away from her, stumbling back and collapsing to the floor.

She stepped forward, the shadows whisking off of her and taking form as two small dragons that floated around her head, the size of dogs, guarding her and waiting patiently for her to command them.

The woman was young – perhaps in her late twenties – with flawless pale flesh and green eyes that fairly seemed to glow with power and a mad, hysterical rage. She was dressed in a white gown that curled and coiled around her body, clasped together with a large emerald at her breast. Her long hair hung in crimson waves down her shoulders and back and she blinked slowly, smiling provocatively, as she regarded them all, the shadows still and waiting behind her.

"I see that the little bitch has done well to shield you from me," she said, and though her voice was as melodious as her form was beautiful, it had a harsh quality to it that told of a secret buried with her. "Still, she was not entirely successful." She looked at Tristan, then Kaiba, and then Ryou. She let out a harsh bark of laughter. "She left you with _control_?! The foolish cur, she has done nothing that will stop me, but I imagine you haven't an inclination as to what I mean." She raised her hand, power forming in it and erupting in a crimson ball of light. "Those of you who have been turned I cannot harm, and Sagira knows that. However," she said, raising her other hand and calling for a second ball of scarlet light, "there are still two whom I can take."

She threw her hands forward, the light erupting from her fingertips and shooting at the last two humans in the room.

"Seto!" Mokuba cried in terror.

Joey leapt at the CEO, his full weight sending Kaiba crashing to the ground, Joey getting struck with the crimson ball and sliding into the wall with a yelp.

The second ball crashed on target, sending Tristan flying backward onto the stairs without a cry.

The witch pouted slightly and sighed. "Well, I do suppose one is better than nothing." The shadows began to erupt into smoke behind her. She turned and smiled at Ryou. "Do tell Sagira hello for me, won't you? I admire her determination, but we both know who will be successful in the end." Her form turned into smoke like her shadows, the last of her to fade her deep, cruel chuckle.

Ryou turned to see Tea sitting beside Tristan, looking at him with worried eyes, and an unconscious Joey in the corner.

* * *

**Author's Note: **I'm fairly sure I broke the fourth wall a bit in this one. That was kind of fun. People more attuned to theatre are more likely to know what that means, but you can always google it. ;)

Look! Some of the mystery has been revealed (and I'm sure you have more questions; like who's the pretty lady with the bad attitude). I'm going to let you wonder for a bit. ^^

I was watching Epica for the last part of this chapter. Very good band, some of the music's a little weird, though, and I still prefer Nightwish.

Anyway, you don't care about that.

Review responses!

_**Yugiyamifangirl: **_Tadaaaaa! ^^

_**Leo112: **_I would have, too. Perhaps at another time. I'm glad you know that I wouldn't actually kill Yugi. I lost half my readers in Dark Summons when people thought I had. It was a bad time. I almost cried.

_**WhiteAsukalove: **_I'm glad this is a good insane. :D I hope this one was, too!

**Author's Note: **Thanks for reading, everyone, and I hope to hear from you again soon! In other words, please review, and…

_Live long. Live well. Write. Read. Dream. _


	12. Author's Note and Sneak Peek

Hello, everyone!

I apologize for getting anyone's hopes up that this was an update to the story. I'm sorry, it is not. It _is_, however, an assurance that I am _not_ dead, and a notice that, while this fic is taking _far_ longer than I had planned to finish, it _will_ be finished. I will admit to putting this fic to the background in the face of trying to finish my novel, which itself has been pushed to the background recently. I am, most unfortunately, forced to take a summer class, which has taken up a great deal of my time.

However, before I continue to prattle on excuses that no one cares to hear, I simply wanted to let everyone know that while this fic may take a few more months to finish (a fact that I regret - I am sorry it is taking so long), it _will_ be completed, rest assured.

For possibly disappointing you all with this not being an update, and for not updating in so long to begin with, I offer you a part of the first chapter of _Slay Me, Save Me_, the sequel to the one-shot, _Kiss Me, Kill Me_, and the YuGiOh! fic that I will turn my attention to once _Light Summons_ has been completed.

Please enjoy it, and I hope to see you again soon with an update.

_~ Umbrae Calamitas_

_Live long. Live well. Write. Read. Dream. _

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**Title: **Slay Me, Save Me**  
Summary: **The sequel to _Kiss Me, Kill Me_: Yugi is catatonic and Yami is trapped within the shattered remains of the Millennium Puzzle. Distraught at their loss, Bakura and the others work to find all of the pieces of the Millennium Puzzle in hopes of finishing it and fixing everything that has gone so terribly wrong. **  
Genre: **Drama, Action/Adventure, Romance**  
Rating: **T**  
Warning(s): **Violence, gore, language, gay romance**, **dark themes**  
Pairings(s): **Yami/Yugi, Bakura/Ryou, possible Tristan/Serenity  
**Status: **Story mapped out; awaiting completion of _Light Summons_

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**Chapter One  
Part I**

_I wished for friends that would never betray me. _

_The Millennium Puzzle. When completed, it is said to grant one wish to the one who had completed it. I made my wish. I wished for friends that would never betray me. And the Puzzle granted my wish. _

_Maybe I took for granted that it would be permanent. _

_Yami is going to leave me. I know that now. He'll leave to be with his family, and I'll be alone again. Alone, like I was before. _

_I know I have Joey now, and Tristan, Tea, and Ryou. And Duke and Mai, and Joey's little sister, Serenity. Even Kaiba can be a friend, when it's convenient for him, and Mokuba's always been fun to be around. _

_But I know they're only my friends because of Yami. He has such a powerful personality, people are drawn to him. Kaiba considers him a rival, so once Yami's gone, he'll leave, and Mokuba will follow him. Once Yami's gone, Joey and Tristan won't want to be around me anymore, and Duke will leave, of course. Serenity will go with her brother, and Mai won't stick around. Ryou won't have Bakura bothering him for much longer, either, and so we won't have anything in common anymore. Tea… she likes Yami, but once he's gone, there won't be a reason for her to stick around. She'll leave, too. _

_In the end, they'll all leave, and I'll be alone again. _

_I wished for friends that would never betray me. The Puzzle gave them to me, but now it's going to take them back. _

_Maybe it would have been easier if I'd never completed the Puzzle in the first place. Then it couldn't hurt me this much, to lose everyone I care about, and the one I… the one I love…_

The only sound in the small bedroom came from the thin brunette in the corner, huddled against the side of a blonde boy and shaking with sobs. Her eyes were red and swollen, and tears continued to stream down her cheeks. She shook her head from side to side and opened her mouth to speak, though nothing came out but a sharp sob, and she turned her head into the blonde's chest and continued to cry.

The blonde boy, for his part, seemed to be outwardly calm. His hands were clenched into fists over his knees, however, and his brown eyes were blazing with anger, confusion, and sadness.

There were other people littered around the room, taking up every available space. A spiky-haired brunette sat cross-legged on the floor, leaning up against the bed with his guitar across his lap. A black-haired boy with an earring and fierce but pain-filled eyes was leaning up against the wall, periodically jiggling a pair of dice in his hand. A young girl with long, red hair was staring at the floor with a lost look in her eyes.

Sitting at the desk with a book in his hands opened to the last page, the young albino gazed around at the room's occupants with light crimson eyes. Even as he studied his fellow friends, he ran a shaking hand through his unruly bleached locks, opening his mouth to say something, and closing it when nothing came out.

"What are we going to do?"

Finally, someone dared to utter the words. Ryou glanced over at the red-head, grateful for her vocal response to the last entry in the journal, even if her voice sounded weak with uncertainty and defeat.

"What _can_ we do?" And there came the unfortunate response. Ryou heard someone utter a soft sigh at the brunette's words, but part of him had to agree with Tristan. What _could_ they do? "I mean, Yugi's in the hospital and the doctors say he's… catatonic. It's not like we can duel this thing into submission." He eyed the deck pouch on Joey's belt, as though begging it to prove him wrong.

"I can't believe Yug' would write somethin' like dat," Joey said, speaking for the first time that day. "He can't – he couldn't believe dat we'd actually leave 'im, could he?"

"I think this must have been bothering Yugi for some time," Ryou admitted, flipping back to the first page of the final entry. "It's dated four weeks before…" He didn't continue his sentence; he didn't need to. They all knew what had happened.

"Do you think that Yami would have actually left, though?"

"I think he would have, if he thought he had no reason to stay," Ryou said. "If he didn't know that Yugi loved him, he would probably think that the best place for him was the Afterlife – that he was holding Yugi back by remaining. Keeping him from being normal."

"Yug' ain't never been _normal_," Joey retorted, which earned him a nod.

"I know, Joey, I know. But Yami _didn't_, and that's the problem."

"What if we… fix the puzzle?" Tea asked hesitantly. The others looked at her. "Yami's not gone, right – he's gone because the puzzle is broken. If we _fixed_ it, maybe he would come back, and help Yugi."


End file.
